Penske Sues Google Over AI Overviews

15 Sep 2025

Penske Media Corporation, publisher of Rolling Stone and The Hollywood Reporter, has sued Google over the search giant’s “AI Overviews” that appear atop results. Penske alleges those AI summaries leave users little reason to click through to original reporting, harming traffic and “illegally benefitting from the work of its reporters.” The complaint says the company faces steep revenue losses and brands Google’s feature as a direct threat to its business model.

Penske is the highest‑profile U.S. media company to file such a suit, though others have already pushed back: Chegg sued Google earlier this year, and independent European publishers have taken action too. The News / Media Alliance has called AI Overviews the “definition of theft.” Google spokesperson José Castañeda defended the product to the Wall Street Journal, saying “with AI Overviews, people find search more helpful and use it more.”

Penske says affiliate revenue is down by over one‑third this year and argues it’s trapped: blocking Google would remove it from search results, while remaining indexed would keep feeding training data to Google. The complaint warns that continuing to supply material risks “adding fuel to a fire that threatens PMC’s [Penske Media Corporation] entire publishing business.” The lawsuit joins a wave of legal fights over how AI products use publisher content, including cases involving Perplexity, News Corp, Encyclopedia Britannica, Merriam‑Webster, and separate copyright suits targeting Microsoft and OpenAI.

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