The European Commission has set its sights on Google for the way it is building its artificial intelligence tools using content published online. Brussels suspects that the tech giant may be using texts, news articles, and videos created by third parties to train its AI models without fair compensation or a genuine option to opt out.
The case has profoundly shaken the relationship between major technology platforms and European media outlets . At stake is not only how journalistic content and content creators are compensated, but also whether Google is leveraging its dominant position in search and on YouTube to strengthen its lead in the AI race against other developers.
A formal investigation into possible abuse of dominant position
The Commission has announced the opening of a formal competition investigation to determine whether Google is violating EU rules by using online content, particularly from European media outlets and digital creators, as raw material for its generative AI services . The case will be given priority, given the importance of the market and the potential impact on the media ecosystem.
The European Commission wants to clarify whether the Alphabet-owned group distorts free competition by imposing “unfair terms and conditions” on publishers and creators, or by reserving privileged access to their content. This behavior could put other AI model developers at a clear disadvantage, as they would not have the same scale or variety of data to train their systems.
The starting point of the investigation is a recurring concern of the European media: Google has allegedly relied massively on quality journalistic content to feed its AI models, without offering proportionate remuneration or effective mechanisms for publishers to refuse without suffering consequences to their online visibility.
The practices analyzed could violate Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union , which prohibits the abuse of a dominant position, as well as Article 54 of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. If the infringement is confirmed, fines could reach 10% of the company's global annual revenue, in addition to potential obligations to change its conduct.
The Vice President responsible for Competition, Teresa Ribera, stressed that AI brings significant advances and many economic opportunities, but that “this progress cannot be built at the expense of the basic principles of our societies .” Her department will analyze whether Google has placed publishers and creators in a “take it or leave it” position that reinforces its power in search engines and online video while hindering the entry or growth of rivals in the field of generative AI.
AI Overviews and AI Mode: the new face of the search engine under suspicion
One of the central focuses of the report is the new AI-powered search results layer that Google has implemented in Europe. This includes the AI Overviews and AI Mode services, two features that are already beginning to change how users obtain information from the search engine.
AI Overviews generates automatic summaries at the top of the page when a search is performed, offering a direct answer without the user having to click on traditional links. AI Mode , on the other hand, functions as a chatbot-like tab that allows users to have a conversation with the system to refine their query, with responses based on information gathered from multiple online sources.
What worries Brussels is the extent to which these services rely on content from European publishers and websites without adequate compensation and without a realistic opt-out option. Many media outlets depend on Google Search as a key source of traffic, so removing their content from the reach of AI systems could result in a significant drop in readership and advertising revenue.
The Commission will investigate whether the generation of AI Overviews and AI Mode relies on the massive use of articles, reports, analyses, and other editorial pieces without a clear licensing agreement and without effective mechanisms to opt out without penalizing the media outlet's ranking in traditional search engines. The key question is whether Google is leveraging its search power to enforce a kind of "forced access" to third-party content for the benefit of its own AI.
This trend had already been generating concern among publishers' groups, who argue that AI-generated summaries can divert clicks that previously went to the original websites, while their work remains the informational basis for the responses. The European Publishers Council (EPC) informed Brussels months ago that features such as generated summaries and conversational mode depend "to a large extent on high-quality journalistic content," without offering in return "fair remuneration or a meaningful option to opt out of such use."
YouTube, creator data, and competitive advantage in AI
The other major line of investigation focuses on YouTube and the use of user-uploaded videos to train generative AI models. According to the Commission, any creator who wants to use the platform must accept terms and conditions that allow Google to exploit this content for a wide range of purposes, including training its artificial intelligence systems.
Brussels suspects there is no specific compensation for this use and that creators cannot upload content to YouTube without simultaneously authorizing the use of their videos as training data. In other words, if a creator wants to be on the platform and access their audience, they are forced to cede these rights wholesale, without the possibility of excluding their use for AI.
At the same time, YouTube's own policies prevent rival AI developers from using that same video catalog to train their systems. This dual effect—privileged access to a vast volume of audiovisual data and restricted access for other players—could give Google a structural advantage that would be very difficult to replicate in the generative AI market.
The Commission will assess whether this contractual and technical design effectively closes the market to Google's own interests , thereby reinforcing the vertical integration between the search engine, the video platform, and its AI tools. If so, this would create a scenario where third-party content becomes an "exclusive asset" for the US giant, while limiting competitors' access to comparable materials.
Google, for its part, points out that through its partner program it has paid tens of billions of dollars to creators, artists, and media companies on YouTube in recent years, and maintains that the generative AI on the platform is designed to help creators optimize their processes, from video editing to generating ideas or detecting unauthorized uses of their image.
Reactions in Europe, tensions with the United States and the role of the media
Brussels' move comes amid growing tension between the EU and major US tech companies . Google is one of the companies facing the most investigations and sanctions for antitrust violations in Europe, with several multi-billion euro fines for practices considered monopolistic, particularly in digital advertising and the handling of sponsored media content on its services.
The Commission's latest decisions have generated unease across the Atlantic. The imposition of hefty fines on giants like Google and Meta has provoked harsh criticism from the US government , which accuses the EU of discriminating against its companies and using competition policy for protectionist purposes. President Donald Trump has even called some of these fines "disgusting" and "discriminatory," linking the regulatory battle to trade disputes over tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Despite this pressure, Brussels is sticking to its roadmap and maintains that competition rules, new digital regulations, and research into the data economy are not intended to stifle innovation, but rather to ensure a level playing field . Specifically regarding AI, the Commission insists that the technology must advance without eroding media pluralism or jeopardizing the work of outlets that produce original content.
For publishers' organizations, the opening of this case is a sign that their demands have been heard. The European Publishers Council believes that Google's AI tools "depend heavily on high-quality journalistic content" and insists that innovation should not be based on the use of journalistic work without clear conditions , without real possibilities for exclusion, and without agreed-upon fair compensation.
From a legal standpoint, the Commission's Competition services may, if they deem it necessary, adopt precautionary measures to prevent irreversible damage while the case is being resolved. There is no fixed timetable for the investigation, the duration of which will depend on the technical complexity of the case and the level of cooperation from the company involved.
Google's defense: innovation, controls, and tools for publishers
Google reacted swiftly to Brussels' announcement, warning that the investigation "risks stifling innovation" in a sector the company describes as "more competitive than ever." In its view, Europeans should be able to benefit from the latest technologies as soon as possible, and excessive restrictions could slow the development of services that provide added value to users, businesses, and creators.
The company emphasizes that it already offers publishers various tools to control the use of their content in training AI models. Among these, it cites Google-Extended, a system that allows website owners to indicate whether their pages can be used to train models like Gemini, as well as the classic robots.txt file to block the crawling of certain paths in the traditional search engine.
According to the company, media outlets can use specific settings to opt out of AI-generated summaries while maintaining their presence in conventional search results. This point will likely be one of the most closely analyzed by the Commission, which wants to determine whether, in practice, opting for greater protection entails a penalty in visibility or SEO ranking.
Within the YouTube sphere, Google highlights the investments made to reward creators and provide them with advanced tools . These include similarity detection systems that allow creators to locate AI-generated content that uses their image or voice, and mechanisms for managing it. The company emphasizes that the integration of generative AI aims to strengthen the creative ecosystem, not replace it.
The key for European regulators will be to determine whether these tools and policies, as currently designed, truly offer publishers and creators a free and unanswered choice , or whether, on the contrary, they are merely formal controls that are difficult to implement in practice without incurring losses in traffic, revenue, or audience.
The case opened by the Commission has become an emblematic example of how the EU wants to manage the transition to the age of artificial intelligence: balancing the innovative drive of companies like Google with the protection of competition, the rights of creators and the economic sustainability of European media.
