Google defeats Chegg and Penske Media AI lawsuits
A federal judge ruled that antitrust claims over AI-generated search overviews fail to get out of the starting gate.
Alphabet unit Google persuaded a federal judge to dismiss antitrust lawsuits filed by education technology company Chegg and Rolling Stone publisher Penske Media Corp. The publishers claimed the search engine unlawfully used their content in AI-generated summaries that drew traffic away from their websites.
In a ruling on September 30, 2026, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington said the claims failed to get out of the starting gate. The lawsuits, filed in 2025, argued Google forced publishers to permit AI overviews of their content if they wanted to remain indexed in search results, leading to lost revenue.
Plaintiffs have pleaded only that they have an ‘expectation’ that Google will send them search traffic if they make their content available for free. But an expectation is not an agreement. It is simply how a general search engine works.
The plaintiffs, including Penske, which also publishes Billboard and Variety, argued Google would have to pay to license content or train artificial intelligence models in a competitive market. Google countered that it has no obligation to index content on terms dictated by publishers. Judge Mehta noted that antitrust law cannot replace congressional legislation addressing how technological innovation might inflict economic harm, noting he had rejected similar claims from another publisher in March.
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