Italy's communications regulator has called for a European-wide review of Google’s AI-powered search summaries, citing fears over publisher revenues, misinformation, and market dominance amid growing tensions between tech giants and news publishers.
Italy's communications regulator has urged the European Commission to examine whether Google's AI-powered search features breach EU digital rules, escalating a growing fight between publishers and the technology giant over the future of online news discovery. AGCOM said it had referred Google Ireland Ltd to Brussels for scrutiny of its AI Overviews and AI Mode tools under the Digital Services Act, acting after a complaint from Italy's newspaper federation, FIEG.
The publishers' case is that Google's AI-generated summaries are pulling readers away from original articles, weakening traffic and advertising revenue at a time when many newsrooms are already under financial strain. AGCOM said FIEG had argued that the decline in visibility of editorial content could jeopardise the economic sustainability of publishers, especially smaller and independent outlets, and could damage media pluralism.
FIEG has also warned that AI-written answers can introduce factual errors that users may struggle to check, raising concerns about misinformation as well as market power. According to the complaint described by AGCOM and reported by other European outlets, the federation wants regulators to assess whether Google has failed to meet obligations on systemic risk mitigation, media freedom, pluralism and transparency.
The dispute is part of a wider European pushback against AI search summaries. Italian publishers have been coordinating with counterparts elsewhere on the continent through the European Newspaper Publishers' Association, while a separate group of independent publishers has also filed an antitrust complaint in Europe alleging that Google is using AI Overviews to divert traffic and reinforce its dominance in search. AGCOM said it would also set up a standing roundtable with Google, other platforms and publishers to discuss copyright, artificial intelligence and media pluralism. Google had no immediate comment.
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Source: Noah Wire Services