The Alliance of General Information Press (APIG), a French press association, has filed a complaint with the country’s competition authority over Google’s new AI-generated search result summaries, which the APIG claims deprive newspapers and magazines of readers.
The group, comprising 300 French newspapers, called on the regulator, known as the Autorité de la concurrence, to take action against Google.
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The alliance’s president, Marc Feuillee, in a statement issued last week, demanded that AI-generated summaries be subject to competition-law scrutiny and that publishers receive fair compensation for the use of their content.
APIG is seeking measures similar to those imposed in an earlier Google case involving French press publishers. Last month, the competition watchdog ordered Meta Platforms to present a payment plan and resume talks with a group of French media who sought a year of unpaid fees for the use of their content online.
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This directive was based on a French regulation introduced four years ago that required Google to pay for using French press articles on its platforms, including its search engine. At the time, Google was fined $576.8 million over the copyright dispute.
In this case, the APIG is pushing back against Google’s recent rollout of AI-generated article summaries without consultation. Google launched and rolled out the AI overviews in 2024. But it did not launch in France until last month.
The body said the overview has triggered a drop in internet traffic to original news articles. It argued that many users no longer click through to read the source of the information.
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“The unilateral deployment of new uses of press content, without prior authorisation or dedicated remuneration, disregards these commitments,” the alliance said, adding that the communications regulator, Arcom, has estimated traffic on their sites has fallen by between 33 per cent and 38 per cent because of AI-generated summaries.
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“The fact that AI is built upon media content means one single thing: this information has considerable value,” Mr Feuillee said.
However, Google insists the summaries let people ask more complex questions, discover new content and help publishers manage content, according to France24.
This case is one of the latest in the growing number of lawsuits between publishers and tech companies in Paris.
However, media platforms worldwide share these concerns. Publishers are increasingly seeking compensation and greater control over how tech companies use their content.
In July 2025, UK publishers complained to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about the impact of Google’s AI Overviews on their operations.
They argued that Google was using their content to generate information while denying them the option to withdraw consent without losing visibility in Google’s general search results page.
A month later, News Media Canada, a body representing Canadian publishers, expressed concerns about the impact of Google AI summaries.
The body also argued that the overview was dragging down publishers’ online engagement.
Meanwhile, several litigation cases against AI companies in the US have challenged the use of copyrighted material to train AI systems.
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