The EU has opened an investigation to assess whether Google is breaching European competition rules in its use of online content from publishers and YouTube creators for artificial intelligence.
The European Commission said on Tuesday it will examine whether the US tech company, which runs the Gemini AI model and is owned by Alphabet, is putting rival AI owners at a “disadvantage”.
“The investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thereby placing developers of rival AI models at a disadvantage,” 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 appropriate compensation to publishers and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content.
The commission said it was also concerned as to whether Google has used content uploaded to YouTube to train its own generative AI models without offering creators compensation or the possibility to refuse.
“Content creators uploading videos on YouTube have an obligation to grant Google permission to use their data for different purposes, including for training generative AI models,” the commission said.
Google does not pay YouTube content creators for their content, nor does it allow them to upload their content on YouTube without allowing Google to use such data, it said. The commission noted that rival developers of AI models are barred by YouTube policies from using YouTube content to train their own AI models.
Google-owned YouTube says its terms and conditions allow Google to use creators’ work for making AI models. In September, YouTube said: “We use content uploaded to YouTube to improve the product experience for creators and viewers across YouTube and Google, including through machine learning and AI applications.”
The EU’s competition chief, Teresa Ribera, said: “AI is bringing remarkable innovation and many benefits for people and businesses across Europe, but this progress cannot come at the expense of the principles at the heart of our societies.”
A spokesperson for Google said: “This complaint risks stifling innovation in a market that is more competitive than ever.
“Europeans deserve to benefit from the latest technologies and we will continue to work closely with the news and creative industries as they transition to the AI era.”
The EU’s investigation is the latest in a series of challenges to US big tech companies in recent years.
In September, EU regulators issued a fine of almost €3bn (£2.6bn) against Google, claiming that it favoured its own digital advertising services over rivals. Donald Trump said the fine was “discriminatory”.
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Elon Musk’s social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, was fined €120m by EU tech regulators last week for breaching online content rules. The breaches included what the EU said was a “deceptive” blue tick verification badge given to users and the lack of transparency of the platform’s advertising.
The fine also attracted criticism from US officials, including the secretary of state Marco Rubio, who wrote on X that the fine was “an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments”.
The European Commission opened an investigation earlier this year into Meta over its rollout of AI features on WhatsApp, its messaging platform. Last year it fined Meta €798m for abusive practices benefiting Facebook Marketplace.
In 2024, Apple lost a fight against an order by EU competition regulators to pay €13bn in back taxes to Ireland.
Last month, the head of Google’s parent company said people should not “blindly trust” everything AI tools tell them.
Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Alphabet, said AI models were “prone to errors” and urged people to use them alongside other tools. He also warned that no company would be immune if the AI bubble burst.
Reuters contributed to this report
