European regulators have launched a new antitrust investigation into Google, focusing on whether the company has "illegally" crawled web content to strengthen its AI product capabilities in order to catch up with rivals in the generative artificial intelligence race. According to Fortune, the investigation focuses on how Google uses content from news publishing organizations and user-uploaded materials for training and provision of services in its generative AI services that are directly linked to its core search business.
The European Commission said it would assess whether Google violated competition rules by using content from web publishers and YouTube videos without appropriate consent, without reasonable compensation or without providing a meaningful opt-out mechanism. Regulators worry that this approach could give Google an unfair competitive advantage in developing AI tools that are increasingly placed at the top of search results.
The core of the investigation is Google’s “AI Overview” and “AI Mode” functions. The AI overview will automatically generate a summary and display it above the traditional search result link. This feature has been criticized for the quality of information and presentation method since its launch. It has also caused strong dissatisfaction among website operators over the diversion of traffic. Some studies claim that the number of clicks on related links has been almost "cut in half." In contrast, the AI mode that uses chatbot-style responses and is turned on at the user's option has relatively little controversy from the outside world.
The European Commission noted that both services may rely on "scraped content" that is originally provided by publishers for inclusion in search indexes and is not intended for generative reuse. Regulators are also examining whether Google uses YouTube videos to train its own generative AI models under similar conditions, but sets access restrictions on competing AI developers. This combination of "self-preferential treatment + setting restrictions on others" may constitute behavior that grants privileges to oneself and imposes unfair terms on others in the same market.
Unlike some recent cases initiated under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), this time the EU launched the investigation in accordance with its long-standing competition law rules. This means that regulators focus more on traditional issues such as abuse of market dominance and elimination of competition, rather than just looking at the obligations of “gatekeeper platforms”.
Google responded in a statement saying, "This complaint has the potential to stifle innovation in a market that has never been more competitive." The company stressed that European users should have the opportunity to benefit from the latest technology, and said it would continue to work closely with the news and creative industries to jointly enter the AI era.
European officials emphasized that the current case is aimed at potential competitive harm, not the technology itself. Teresa Rivera, the European Commission Vice President responsible for competition policy, said that AI has brought significant innovation and many benefits to individuals and businesses in Europe, but technological progress cannot be at the expense of core legal principles of society.
According to the procedures, Google will have the opportunity to formally respond to the relevant concerns raised by the EU. The Commission has notified the United States that it has not yet set a deadline for closing the case. If Google is ultimately found to have violated competition rules, the fine could be up to 10% of its global annual operating revenue. This investigation also adds to the ongoing doubts about how large technology companies obtained training data in the early days of the rapid rise of large models. As generative AI becomes more deeply embedded in consumer products, regulators are increasingly asking whether early data advantages crossed legal red lines, and whether these advantages continue to shape the current competitive landscape.