Penske AI Overviews lawsuit dismissed

Judge Amit Mehta dismissed Penske Media's antitrust suit against Google over AI Overviews, finding no "formal bargain" existed: publishers "voluntarily acceded" to cost-free crawling in exchange for search traffic that was never contractually promised. Chegg's parallel claim was also dismissed.

The crux

The courts are signalling that expecting search traffic in return for free content is not a contract, which closes the antitrust route for publishers seeking compensation for AI Overviews traffic loss.

Sell-side read

This kills the "implied bargain" legal theory publishers had been testing. The remaining levers are legislation (the bad bots bill), licensing infrastructure (SPUR) and direct negotiation, not litigation.

Watch

Whether The New York Times' separate copyright case against OpenAI and Microsoft establishes the copyright route publishers can actually win on.