Judge dismisses Chegg and Penske antitrust lawsuits targeting Google AI search

US District Judge Amit Mehta has dismissed antitrust lawsuits filed by Chegg and Penske Media against Google, ruling that Google's conduct is not illegal under antitrust law. The lawsuits were filed in 2025, and Google requested a dismissal earlier this year.

Chegg, an education and learning platform, alleged that Google illegally scraped its educational content, enabling Gemini models to recreate that content and reduce the site's traffic. Penske, which owns publications including Rolling Stone and Variety, filed a similar case alleging lost traffic. Penske argued it was unfair that sites indexed for organic search would also have their content harvested for AI answers with no way to opt out.

Mehta was not persuaded. He wrote that Google's implicit agreement with websites is not legally relevant: "Plaintiffs have pleaded only that they have an 'expectation' that Google will send them search traffic if they make their content available for free. But an expectation is not an agreement. It is simply how a general search engine works." Because Google never had a formal arrangement with either company, antitrust law does not apply, according to the ruling.

Mehta also heard the DOJ's long-running search antitrust case against Google, in which he found Google violated the law, though the government did not receive the harsh penalties it sought.

While granting the dismissal, Mehta acknowledged the publishers' situation. He wrote that the court does not treat the alleged harms lightly and is not unsympathetic to publishers or to journalists, educators, and other online creators whose content Google takes and repurposes without compensation. He said the court is bound to apply the law as written, not as it believes it ought to be.

Publishers may face further legal battles over AI search in US courts absent new legislation. The European Commission is considering the same questions, and the UK has ordered Google to provide an AI opt-out for sites that want to remain in organic search results. Google is exploring ways to pay sites directly for contributing to AI answers, but its pilot program is reportedly not going over well with publishers.