The European Commission has launched an antitrust probe into Google’s use of online content for its AI offerings, which has resulted in traffic hits for affiliates.

The EU’s executive branch is investigating whether Google breached competition rules by using the content of web publishers and content uploaded to YouTube for AI purposes.

It comes as web scraping by Google, used to create summaries of user queries at the top of the page, has led to significant traffic hits to publishers of online content, including gambling affiliates.

Teresa Ribera, European Commission Executive Vice President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, said: “A free and democratic society depends on diverse media, open access to information, and a vibrant creative landscape.

“These values are central to who we are as Europeans. AI is bringing remarkable innovation and many benefits for people and businesses across Europe, but this progress cannot come at the expense of the principles at the heart of our societies.

EU to investigate if Google distorting competition

The investigation will examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content compared to other AI businesses.

Ribera continued: “This is why we are investigating whether Google may have imposed unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, while placing rival AI models developers at a disadvantage, in breach of EU competition rules.”

The Commission said it is concerned Google may have used AI overviews on its search results pages without giving compensation – or the option to refuse their use – to content creators and publishers.

It added that it intends to investigate the extent to which the generation of AI overviews and AI mode is based on publisher content without proper compensation.

Many publishers, the Commission noted, depend on Google search for web traffic and would not want to risk losing access to that.

If proven, this may breach EU competition rules that prohibit the abuse of a dominant position. namely Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 54 of the European Economic Area Agreement.

The investigation potentially marks good news for affiliates, which have been bruised by traffic declines resulting from the AI models, alongside most other publishers on the internet.

This followed other Google updates which penalised affiliate practices since 2024, which in some cases have led to painful hits to rankings.

Source

#EUCompetition #GoogleAI #AntitrustInvestigation #DigitalMarkets #ContentRights #AffiliatesMarketing