Courts Deny Publisher AI Fees

A federal judge dismissed 2025 antitrust suits by Chegg and Penske that sought compensation or opt‑outs for Google’s use of their content in AI search features, ruling that publishers’ mere expectation of search traffic is not a contractual agreement and thus not covered by antitrust law. The decision signals that, absent statute or contract, courts are unlikely to force platforms to pay publishers for AI‑derived answers based on scraped or indexed content. — This shapes the legal and commercial landscape for media and education publishers, reducing one pathway to monetize content against AI features and increasing pressure on policy, product, or collective bargaining responses.