By Guardian staff reporter
Publication Date: 2025-12-09 08:48:00
The EU has launched an investigation into whether Google is violating European competition rules by using online content from web publishers and YouTube for artificial intelligence.
The European Commission said on Tuesday it would examine whether the U.S. technology company that runs the Gemini AI model, owned by Alphabet, was “disadvantaging” rival AI owners.
“In particular, the investigation will examine whether Google distorts competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thereby disadvantaging developers of competing AI models,” the commission said.
It said it was concerned that Google may have used content from web publishers to generate AI-powered services on its search results pages without paying publishers adequate compensation and without giving them the opportunity to opt out of such use of their content.
The commission said it was also concerned because…
