US District Judge Amit Mehta threw out separate antitrust lawsuits filed by Chegg and Penske Media against Google, both alleging that AI Overviews and related features harmed their website traffic. Mehta found that Google had no formal agreement with either company to send them search traffic, so antitrust law did not apply to the dispute. The same judge previously ruled against Google in the DOJ's broader search antitrust case, though penalties there were lighter than prosecutors sought.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-01
US District Judge Amit Mehta dismissed lawsuits from Penske Media Corporation and Chegg that accused Google of using AI Overviews to siphon traffic from their sites and harm ad revenue. Mehta ruled both companies failed to show Google violated antitrust law, stating that an expectation of search traffic is not an agreement Google broke.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-01
US District Judge Amit Mehta threw out antitrust lawsuits from Chegg and Penske Media Corporation, which had accused Google of forcing publishers to supply free content for AI Overviews under threat of losing search visibility. Mehta ruled the publishers' claims didn't meet the legal standard for antitrust violations, saying an expectation of referral traffic is not a binding agreement.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-01
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