Published on: April 22, 2025 / update from: April 22, 2025 - Author: Konrad Wolfenstein
The EU Commission is investigating Google AI Overviews for violations of EU regulations-Image: Xpert.digital
EU examines Google's AI search: Risks for copyright and media diversity
Why Google's "AI overview" could change the digital ecosystem
The EU Commission is currently examining Google's AI-generated answers in the search for possible violations of various European regulations. Since the end of March 2025, the “Overview with AI” function (internationally referred to as “AI Overviews”) has been available in some European countries - but the technology raises significant legal questions. In particular, the Commission examines how the AI generated summaries interact with the EU reporting law regulations, competitive rules, platform obligations and media diversity protection. The focus is on the fear that this technology reduces internet traffic to the original sources and thus fundamentally changes the existing digital ecosystem.
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The functionality and distribution of Google Ai Overviews
What are Google Ai overviews and how do you work?
Google Ai Overviews, also referred to in Germany as an “overview with AI”, are AI generated summaries that appear above the regular search results. This function is intended to provide users direct answers to your search queries by combining information from different sources and presenting as a coherent text. The overview should be used, especially for more complex search queries, while simpler inquiries continue to be answered with conventional results lists.
The AI answers are created by a version of Google's Large Language Model “Gemini”, which was specially trained for search tasks. The system uses Google's ranking mechanisms and links the sources used in the generated summary. The overviews contain links to the websites from which the information comes from, whereby not only the top 10 results are taken into account, which could potentially offer new vision opportunities for websites.
Limited availability in Europe
While Google has now rolled out the AI overviews in more than 100 countries worldwide, availability in Europe remains significantly restricted. At the end of March 2025, the function was initially introduced in eight EU member states: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain as well as in Switzerland. It is striking that Google does not provide the AI overviews in all EU countries and that large parts of Europe are initially left out.
The delayed and restricted introduction to Europe is mainly attributed to the strict EU regulations. A Google representative explained that “the flood of EU technology laws, including the AI Act, Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), hold back the introduction of innovative functions” and to consider it with regard to product innovation. Meta had also experienced similar problems in the introduction of its AI assistant in Europe due to regulatory disputes in the previous year.
The EU examination of Google Ai Overviews
Scope of the examination by the EU Commission
The EU Commission has confirmed that it is currently examining the functioning of Google AI Overviews. Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier told the Media page Euractiv: "The Commission is currently examining how the 'Google Ai Overviews' function works in practice and what effects it could have in the context of EU Urhine Rights". This investigation is part of a more comprehensive examination of Google's search practices.
The Commission not only considers copyright aspects, but also “rules on unfair competition, platform obligations according to the Digital Services Act (DSA) and DMA as well as the protection of media variety in accordance with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA)”.
Connection to the ongoing DMA examination
Although no formal steps have yet been initiated as part of the DSA, the copyright directive or the EMFA, the practice is assessed, at least as part of the Commission on the ongoing DMA examination. The Commission has already proven that Google violates the DMA by preferring its own products in the search results. The preliminary findings “do not specifically deal with AI overviews”, since this function was only introduced after its publication. Nevertheless, according to Regnier, “the same principles” apply.
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Relevant EU regulations and potential violations
Digital Markets Act (DMA)
The Digital Markets Act, which came into force on March 6, 2024, aims to prevent the abuse of market power by very large digital companies. As a “gatekeeper” companies such as Alphabet (Google), Apple, Amazon and Meta are subject to stricter requirements as smaller providers.
The EU Commission has already accused Google to violate the prohibition of self-proposal by treating its own services in the search results. The Commission is now investigating whether the AI overviews further strengthen this self -proposal by leading users less likely to compete.
General Data Protection Regulation and Digital Services Act
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also plays an important role in assessing AI overviews. The GDPR places high demands on handling user data and transparency when using AI systems. Google had to ensure that the AI overviews meet these requirements, which was a reason for the delayed introduction to Europe.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) regulates intermediary services, including online platforms, and determines certain obligations that could also be relevant for the AI overviews.
EU consulting law regulations
The EU Urhine Rights Directive is a central aspect of the investigation. The Commission checks how the AI overviews interact with the EU consulting law regulations. Since the AI answers summarize and re-present content from various websites, the question arises whether this violates the copyrights of the original sources.
European Media Freedom Act and protection of media diversity
The EU Commission also examines whether the AI overviews are compatible with the requirements for the protection of media diversity in accordance with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). According to this law, citizens must “have access to a wide range of editorially independent media content”, and platform operators are obliged to ensure this.
Ai act
The AI Act, which is the first comprehensive legal regulation for AI worldwide, also plays a role in the assessment of Google's AI function. The law defines four risky levels for AI systems and determines different requirements depending on the risk classification. The Commission could check whether the AI overviews meet the transparency and security requirements of the AI Act.
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Effects and concerns of various interest groups
Effects on publishers and content producers
A central concern is the potential reduction in data traffic to the original sources by the AI Overviews. Publishers and independent content creators fear that users will often be satisfied with the AI overviews and will no longer click on the original page. With the lack of clicks, website operators lose the opportunity to make money on their own side-a traditional online business model that is also challenged by AI searches by Chatgpt, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot.
The fear of a traffic loss does not seem to be unfounded. According to the SEO company Brightedge, 84 percent of the search queries with AI-generated texts were initially answered when the AI overviews were introduced, although this share later decreased to less than 15 percent.
Quality problems of the AI answers
In addition to the economic and legal concerns, there are also quality problems with the AI answers. In the United States, where the function has been available for a long time, there have been reports of absurd and sometimes dangerous answers, such as the recommendation to glue cheese with glue on a pizza or eat stones for breakfast to regulate the mineral balance. Such mistakes from AI increase the concerns about the reliability and safety of the technology.
Google's position and adjustments
Google's reaction to the investigation
In response to the inquiries from Euractive, Google referred to blog posts in which the company explains its view of AI and copyright as well as its compliance with the DSA, DMA and the copyright directive. Google has repeatedly emphasized that the AI overviews contain links to the sources and thus offer transparency about the origin of the information.
Adjustments and security measures
Google emphasizes that all search security measures also apply to the AI overviews, in particular for so-called “Your Money Your Life” website, the content of which could influence the security, health and financial stability of people and the well-being of society.
The company also argues that the AI search is not hallucinated in the same way as an LLM or chatbot alone, as it accesses web content. Nevertheless, the model can be misinterpreted, as the problematic answers already mentioned show.
Europe vs. Big Tech: What Google's AI investigations mean
The examination of the Google AI Overviews by the EU Commission underlines the complex regulatory challenges associated with the use of AI technologies in central digital services. The Commission must weigh whether and to what extent the technology violates various EU regulations such as DMA, DSA, the copyright directive, the EMFA and the AI Act.
The concerns about the effects on publishers and content producers, the quality and safety of the AI answers as well as the potential competitive effects are justified and require a careful examination. The EU Commission has already shown in the past that it is ready to act against large technology companies if they violate EU regulations, as the fine of 1.84 billion euros shows against Apple.
The further development of this investigation will not only be of great importance for Google, but for the entire AI and search engine industry and could become trend-setting for the regulation of AI-supported services in Europe.
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