The European Commission has launched a formal antitrust investigation into Google to assess whether the company has violated EU competition rules by using content from web publishers and YouTube for artificial intelligence (AI) purposes. The probe will examine whether Google is imposing unfair terms on publishers and creators or granting itself privileged access, potentially disadvantaging rival AI developers.

The investigation focuses on two main areas:

• Web publisher content: Google’s AI-powered features, including AI Overviews (AI-generated summaries on search results) and AI Mode (a chatbot-style search function), may rely on publishers’ content without proper compensation or the ability for publishers to opt out. Many publishers depend on Google Search for traffic, making refusal difficult.

• YouTube content: Google may be using videos and other user-uploaded content to train its AI models without compensating creators or allowing them to restrict this use. Competitors, meanwhile, are barred by YouTube’s policies from using such content for AI training.

If proven, these practices could breach EU rules prohibiting abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement.

The Commission emphasized that the opening of an investigation does not prejudge the outcome. The probe will be carried out as a priority, with its duration depending on case complexity, cooperation from Google, and the exercise of legal rights by involved parties.