The European Commission has launched an antitrust inquiry into Google to determine whether the company has violated EU competition rules, partly focusing on whether Google has used creator and publisher content in ways that leave publishers unable to refuse such use without risking their search traffic. It is also looking into whether Google is granting itself privileged access to YouTube content for AI in a way that leaves competitors at a disadvantage.

How Google’s Terms May Pressure Publishers and Creators

The Commission is focusing on publisher content is used by AI Overviews and AI Mode to generate answers but without a way to compensate the publishers or for them to opt out of having their content used to generate summaries.

They write:

“The Commission will investigate to what extent the generation of AI Overviews and AI Mode by Google is based on web publishers’ content without appropriate compensation for that, and without the possibility for publishers to refuse without losing access to Google Search. Indeed, many publishers depend on Google Search for user traffic, and they do not want to risk losing access to it.”

This raises concerns that Google may be using publisher content in its AI products without offering a workable opt-out, leaving publishers who rely on Search traffic with little choice but to accept this use.

Use of YouTube Content to Train Google’s AI Models

The Commission is also examining Google’s use of YouTube videos and other creator content for training its generative AI models. According to the announcement, creators “have an obligation to grant Google permission to use their data for different purposes, including for training generative AI models,” and cannot upload content while withholding that permission. Google provides no payment for this use while blocking rival AI developers from training on YouTube content under YouTube’s policies.

This mix of mandatory access for Google, limits on competitors, and no payment for creators underpins the Commission’s concern that Google may be giving itself preferred access to YouTube content in a way that may harm the wider AI market.

The Commission has notified Google that it has opened an investigation into whether they have breached EU competition rules prohibiting the abuse of a dominant position.

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