Judge Dismisses Chegg and Penske Antitrust Lawsuits Targeting Google AI Search

A federal judge has dismissed antitrust lawsuits brought by Chegg and Penske Media against Google over allegations that the tech giant's AI search features are harming publishers. The lawsuits, filed in 2025, claimed that Google's use of publishers' content in AI Overviews and other AI search features without compensation or an opt-out mechanism caused significant traffic loss.

Chegg alleged that Google illegally scraped its educational content, allowing Google's Gemini models to replicate it and reduce Chegg's traffic. Penske, which owns publications like Rolling Stone and Variety, made a similar claim, stating that the loss of organic search traffic was unfair since content indexed for search would also be harvested for AI answers without an opt-out option.

However, the judge dismissed the cases, stating that an expectation of receiving search traffic in exchange for free content isn't a legally binding agreement. The judge emphasized that since Google never had a formal arrangement with Chegg or Penske, antitrust law doesn't apply. The judge's decision comes after the Department of Justice's ongoing search antitrust case against Google, which found Google in violation of antitrust laws but did not result in the severe penalties the government sought.