A piece of news can reach millions of people without all of them going to the media that published it. For years, search engines have acted as intermediaries between those who create information and those who want to find it, providing the flow of visits that help sustain digital press businesses. However, artificial intelligence has introduced a new scenario: users can get direct answers, without needing to access the original sources. For the reader this may be comforting, but for the media it raises a fundamental question about the value of their content and how their work is remunerated.
This tension has just transferred to European justice. This Tuesday, November 3, Maciej Szpuner, Advocate General of the Court of the European Union (CJEU), concluded that Gemini could infringe publishers’ rights when it retrieves and reuses their publications to create responses to certain situations. Its interpretation represents a setback for Google and opens a potential avenue for future financial claims by the media. However, there is an important nuance: these are non-binding decisions, so it is still up to the court to issue a ruling.
To understand the origin of this conflict we have to go to Hungary. There Like Company, a company that operates several information portals, is considering taking legal action against Google Gemini used his publication without permission To develop the answer. A specific example in the court file relates to a news story about the Hungarian singer Kosso, who wanted to set up an aquarium with dolphins next to Lake Balaton. The assistant created a detailed summary at the request of a user, who questioned the editor’s use of its content. Given doubts about the applicable law, a Hungarian court decided to consult the CJEU.
War on news and AI
Not all responses from an artificial intelligence based on news constitute infringement. European law distinguishes between information reported in an article and specific forms of its disclosure, which may be protected. According to the Attorney General, Gemini may violate the rights of publishers when it reproduces their publications without permission or accesses them by circumventing effective technical protection measures. On the other hand, model training may qualify for text and data mining exceptions under certain conditions, although Szpunar proposed not allowing the question to be asked because there is no evidence that Like Company articles were used to train Gemini.
It’s no secret that media also plays a role in this transformation of our business model. Visits to our pages allow us to display advertisements, create advertising impressions and, in some cases, attract customers. But when one gets orno Reply directly from Gemini Or find a summary of AI overviews in search engines, which may not make it to the original article, reducing the opportunity to earn from journalistic work. Some AI platforms charge subscriptions and enter into commercial agreements with certain publishers, but this does not mean that all publications receive compensation for the use of their content.
We are not just talking about concerns for the sector. Pew Research Center observed that in 2025, analyzed among US users, 8% of visits to Google results pages with AI summaries ended with a click on traditional links, compared to 15% when they were not displayed. Also, the Reuters Institute collects data from Chartbeat that reflects a global 33% decline in organic traffic from search engines to more than 2,500 websites between November 2024 and November 2025 without attributing all the damage to AI. Europe has already intervened: France has fined Google 250 million euros in 2024 for failing to comply with commitments regarding publishers’ rights, some of which were linked to the use of content from Gemini’s predecessor Bard.
Now, the CJEU itself has explained in its official statement, the final word on the interpretation of European law Their judge will get itwho were to rule over matters arising from Hungary. Its decisions will be binding, but it will be up to national courts to resolve specific disputes and determine whether a violation has occurred and what the consequences are, including possible financial compensation.
Featured Image | Caleb Oquendo
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