Digital Content Next strongly supports the European Commission’s formal investigation into Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode practices. Google’s use of premium publisher content to power AI-generated summaries atop search results is not innovation – it is substitution, siphoning value away from the open web and trusted news and entertainment.

As DCN Members participating in our proprietary DCN Benchmark Reports are aware, DCN’s Q3 Quarterly Revenue Report reveals clear and structural declines in advertising inventory. Across nearly all formats, it is impressions – not pricing – driving revenue softness. Desktop display and video impressions significantly declined year-over-year, driving revenue down despite rising CPMs which underscores the impact of lower impressions and potential harm to publishers.

These declines directly align with the sharp downturn in referral traffic from Google Search – identified in DCN’s July 2025 Snap Survey as a top-tier, systemic risk for publishers. That study received significant press having established a median 10% year-over-year drop in search referral traffic, with non-news brands seeing a 14% median decline, and clear evidence that AI Overviews and zero-click experiences are displacing clicks and visibility for publishers’ original content.

This EC action also comes amid escalating legal challenges in the United States. Following the DOJ’s ruling that Google maintained an illegal monopoly in search, Judge Mehta acknowledged potential harms to publishers – particularly due to the lack of specific and freely given consent for AI training on their content – may influence the shape of future remedies. Recent private litigation from Penske Media further alleges that Google is illegally tying its AI products to its search monopoly, using publisher content to feed products that directly replace – rather than refer to – the source material.

These developments point to a single, urgent conclusion: Google’s AI Overviews is extending the company’s dominance at the expense of a free and plural media. Regulators must act swiftly and decisively to:

• Halt the unauthorized use of publisher content in AI products;
• Enforce transparency around how AI models ingest and display that content; and
• Ensure publishers retain meaningful control and fair compensation in this new ecosystem.

Without corrective action, this dynamic will continue to erode the economic foundation of high-quality news and entertainment – not because readers value it less, but because dominant platforms choose to redirect that value elsewhere.