Judge tosses Chegg, Penske antitrust suits against Google AI search

A federal judge has dismissed antitrust lawsuits from Chegg and Penske Media against Google, rejecting claims that the company’s AI search features harmed their websites. The judge ruled that Google’s conduct doesn’t violate antitrust law, noting that publishers’ expectations of traffic don’t constitute a legal agreement. Both companies argued that Google’s AI overviews reduced their site traffic by scraping content without opt-out options, but the judge found no legal basis for their claims. The ruling underscores the legal challenges in regulating AI search practices.