"Plaintiffs have pleaded only that they have an ‘expectation’ that Google will send them search traffic if they make their content available for free," Mehta wrote in the memorandum opinion. "But an expectation is not an agreement. It is simply how a general search engine works."<\/p>\n
It was the second such case Mehta has rejected this year, according to reporting on the ruling<\/a>. The court was "not unsympathetic to the situation publishers now find themselves in," but wrote that antitrust rules cannot replace a legislative body’s decision to address the economic impact of "new innovation," The Verge reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Penske, which publishes Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and Billboard, said its search impressions and referrals dropped after AI Overviews rolled out, and that its organic affiliate revenue fell by more than a third from its peak to the end of 2024, according to Press Gazette. The company also said it could not block Google from using its content in AI Overviews while still showing up normally in search.<\/p>\n The decision gives publishers no new power over AI Overviews, and it leaves the existing opt-out in place. You can keep a page in ordinary web search while removing it from the material that feeds the AI summary. With more and more of the search results page taken up by AI Mode and AI Overviews, that might not be a satisfying compromise.<\/p>\n Knowing how a page shows up across these surfaces is the part a small business can measure. Our guide to AI visibility<\/a> walks through getting a brand cited by AI answers. BizScoreAI scores how visible a business is to AI search and shows what its listing looks like to the engines people ask.<\/p>\n Mehta’s 2024 finding that Google operates as a monopolist in online search still stands. This ruling shows that being labeled a monopolist does not turn every disputed practice into an antitrust violation. Each claim still has to meet the legal tests, and these two did not on the facts presented. The publishers had argued that in a competitive market Google would pay them to republish their work or to train its AI, Reuters reported via The Globe and Mail; Google said it has no obligation to index content on a publisher’s preferred terms and denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n Other venues are testing related questions. Separately, The Information reported that Google is paying around 100 publishers for their contributions to AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini in a pilot program, according to The Verge<\/a>. Traffic to news outlets and small websites has dropped sharply as these AI search features expand, The Verge reported.<\/p>\n A federal judge dismissed lawsuits from Penske Media Corporation and Chegg that claimed Google’s AI Overviews illegally siphoned traffic. The ruling found the publishers did not show that Google was using a search monopoly to force them to provide free material for AI features.<\/p>\n Yes. Publishers can exclude specific webpages from being used for AI Overviews while keeping those pages visible in standard search results. The trade-off is that the AI summary box continues to occupy space at the top of the results page.<\/p>\n Yes. Judge Mehta ruled in 2024 that Google maintained a monopoly in online search services. The October 2026 decision only addressed whether the conduct in these two lawsuits crossed the line into an antitrust violation.<\/p>\n BizScoreAI scores how visible a business is to AI search and shows what its listing looks like to the engines people ask. Open the free listing check<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhat the ruling means for your pages in AI search<\/h2>\n
What a local business can actually control<\/h3>\n
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The bigger picture for AI and antitrust in search<\/h2>\n
What to do now<\/h2>\n
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FAQ<\/h2>\n
What did the judge decide about Google’s AI Overviews?<\/h3>\n
Can publishers stop their content from appearing in AI Overviews?<\/h3>\n
Is Google still considered a monopoly in search after this ruling?<\/h3>\n
BizScoreAI<\/h2>\n
![\"BizScoreAI,](\"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BizScoreAI-Social-image.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSources<\/h2>\n