Judge dismisses Chegg and Penske antitrust lawsuits targeting Google AI search

A federal judge has dismissed two antitrust lawsuits that alleged Google’s artificial‑intelligence–driven search features were diverting traffic away from other websites. The cases were brought by the education‑technology company Chegg and Penske Media Corporation, the parent of Rolling Stone, which claimed that Google’s AI “Overviews” were siphoning web traffic and harming competition.

The lawsuits asserted that Google, which dominates the online search market, was leveraging its position to favor its own AI‑generated summaries in search results, thereby reducing the visibility of content hosted on third‑party sites. Both plaintiffs sought relief on the grounds that the practice violated U.S. antitrust law.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the plaintiffs had not presented a compelling case that Google’s AI Overviews constituted an antitrust violation. In his opinion, the judge acknowledged that AI‑enhanced search can have broader implications for web traffic, but concluded that the allegations did not rise to the level of unlawful conduct under antitrust statutes.

The decision underscores that, while Google’s dominance in the search market is well established, the court found insufficient evidence that the company was improperly using that dominance through its AI features. The judge’s dismissal leaves the plaintiffs without the sought‑after injunctive relief or damages.

Both Chegg and Penske Media have the option to appeal the ruling, but for now the lawsuits are closed, and Google’s AI Overviews will continue to appear in its search results without further judicial restriction.