{"slug": "google-wins-dismissal-of-chegg-penske-media-lawsuits-over-ai-overviews", "title": "Google wins dismissal of Chegg, Penske Media lawsuits over AI overviews", "summary": "US District Judge Amit Mehta dismissed antitrust lawsuits from Chegg and Penske Media against Alphabet's Google on Wednesday (Sep 30), ruling that the publishers' claims over Google's AI-generated summaries \"fail to get out of the starting gate.\" Chegg and Penske, publisher of Rolling Stone, Billboard and Variety, alleged Google unlawfully used their content in AI overviews and forced publishers to allow the summaries to stay indexed in search results, costing them traffic revenue. Mehta wrote that \"an expectation is not an agreement,\" adding he is not \"unsympathetic\" to publishers but that antitrust law does not substitute for legislators' power to address economic harm from innovation.", "body_md": "# Google wins dismissal of Chegg, Penske Media lawsuits over AI overviews\n\nThe companies allege the search engine giant unlawfully used their content in AI-generated summaries\n\n[WASHINGTON] Alphabet’s Google has persuaded a US federal judge to dismiss lawsuits from education technology company Chegg and Rolling Stone publisher Penske Media that alleged the search engine giant [unlawfully used their content](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/googles-ai-previews-erode-internet-us-edtech-company-says-lawsuit) in artificial-intelligence-generated summaries that draw readers away from their websites.\n\nIn his ruling on Wednesday (Sep 30), US District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington said Chegg and Penske’s claims that Google’s business practices violate antitrust law “fail to get out of the starting gate”.\n\nThe companies said in lawsuits filed last year that Google broke antitrust law by forcing publishers to allow AI overviews of their content if they want to remain indexed in Google’s search results. They alleged they lost revenue from reduced traffic to their sites.\n\n“Plaintiffs have pleaded only that they have an ‘expectation’ that Google will send them search traffic if they make their content available for free,” Mehta wrote. “But an expectation is not an agreement. It is simply how a general search engine works.”\n\nChegg and Penske, which also publishes Billboard and Variety magazines, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Google also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\n\nGoogle has denied any wrongdoing.\n\nThe plaintiffs said in a competitive market Google would pay them for republishing their work or using their content to train its AI systems.\n\nGoogle countered that it has no obligation to index publishers’ content on their preferred terms.\n\nMehta said he is not “unsympathetic” to the situation of publishers and other online creators whose content Google takes and repurposes without compensation. But he said antitrust laws don’t substitute for legislators’ power to address how innovation may cause economic harm.\n\nThe judge in March rejected similar claims by a publisher suing Google. REUTERS\n\nDecoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.\n\nShare with us your feedback on BT's products and services", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-wins-dismissal-of-chegg-penske-media-lawsuits-over-ai-overviews", "canonical_source": "https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/google-wins-dismissal-chegg-penske-media-lawsuits-over-ai-overviews", "published_at": "2026-10-01 14:57:30+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-01 15:15:31.632598+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-search", "ai-policy", "generative-ai", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Google", "Alphabet", "Chegg", "Penske Media", "Amit Mehta", "Rolling Stone", "Billboard", "Variety"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-wins-dismissal-of-chegg-penske-media-lawsuits-over-ai-overviews", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-wins-dismissal-of-chegg-penske-media-lawsuits-over-ai-overviews.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-wins-dismissal-of-chegg-penske-media-lawsuits-over-ai-overviews.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-wins-dismissal-of-chegg-penske-media-lawsuits-over-ai-overviews.jsonld"}}