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Helena World Chronicle, an Arkansas-based publisher, has taken legal action against Google and Alphabet in a class action lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses Google of engaging in anticompetitive behavior, violating U.S. antitrust laws, including the Sherman Act, and unlawfully diverting content, readers, and ad revenue from news publishers through anticompetitive methods.
The legal action sheds light on the role of emerging AI technologies, such as Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) and the Bard AI chatbot, in exacerbating the issue.
Helena World Chronicle claims that Google's actions are detrimentally affecting the free press, resulting in significant financial losses for publishers.
The lawsuit connects distractions from publishers' websites to Google's older technologies, including the Knowledge Graph and "Featured Snippets" capabilities.
It also expresses concerns about the potential impact of AI on publishers' businesses, suggesting that website traffic could decline by 20%-40% when Google's AI products fully launch.
Among other claims, the lawsuit seeks damages and requests an injunction compelling Google to obtain publishers' permission before utilizing their website data for AI product training.
The legal action reflects growing concerns within the publishing industry regarding the alleged anticompetitive practices of tech giants like Google.
