A U.S. federal court has dismissed two high-profile antitrust lawsuits against Google brought by education platform Chegg and media group Penske Media. The plaintiffs sought to argue that the implementation of the AI moderation feature illegally deprived the website of incoming traffic and allowed search engines to use its intellectual property for free.
Justice Amit Mehta found the tech giant’s actions not offensive and noted that the practice of exchanging clicks for content did not constitute a legal agreement. He said that while he was sympathetic to the difficult situation of publishers, antitrust laws should not replace comprehensive national-level regulation of the consequences of digital innovation.