The European Commission will investigate whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators or by granting itself privileged access to such content.

Part of the investigation will focus on Google’s use of content of web publishers to provide generative AI-powered services (‘AI Overviews’ and ‘AI Mode’) on its search results pages without appropriate compensation to publishers and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content.

AI Overviews shows AI-generated summaries responsive to a user’s search query above organic results, while AI Mode is a search tab similar to a chatbot answering users’ queries in a conversational style.

The Commission will investigate to what extent the generation of AI Overviews and AI Mode by Google is based on web publishers’ content without appropriate compensation for that, and without the possibility for publishers to refuse without losing access to Google Search.

Another aspect of the investigation will focus on Google’s use of video and other content uploaded on YouTube to train its generative AI models without appropriate compensation to creators and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content.

Content creators uploading videos on YouTube have an obligation to grant Google permission to use their data for different purposes, including for training generative AI models.

Google does not remunerate YouTube content creators for their content, nor does it allow them to upload their content on YouTube without allowing Google to use such data.

At the same time, rival developers of AI models are barred by YouTube policies from using YouTube content to train their own AI models.

The European Commission says that, if proven, the practices under investigation may breach EU competition rules that prohibit the abuse of a dominant position, under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and Article 54 of the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement.

Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for clean, just and competitive transition, said: “A free and democratic society depends on diverse media, open access to information, and a vibrant creative landscape. These values are central to who we are as Europeans.

“AI is bringing remarkable innovation and many benefits for people and businesses across Europe, but this progress cannot come at the expense of the principles at the heart of our societies.

“This is why we are investigating whether Google may have imposed unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, while placing rival AI models developers at a disadvantage, in breach of EU competition rules.”