The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse. Photo Credit: Toohool
Billboard owner Penske Media is officially appealing the dismissal of its AI-focused antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet and Google, per legal filings shared with Digital Music News this morning.
Penske just recently moved forward with the appeal after the tech giant closed out September by scoring a high-profile victory. As we broke down in detail then – we’ve also covered the case’s other key developments – the presiding judge determined that current antitrust laws don’t extend to AI-powered search summaries.
And in doing so, Judge Amit Mehta rejected the plaintiffs’ central arguments, chief among them that Google leverages (or at least leveraged – more here in a moment) “its unlawful monopoly over search” by compelling publishers to grant sweeping AI training and summary authorizations “for free.”
With the far-from-ideal alternative being to exit search results altogether, the same entities are compelled to agree to said terms – resulting in traffic and advert-revenue falloffs due to Google’s AI summaries, according to Penske.
Dismissal aside, the judge did acknowledge the summaries’ economic impact for publishers and signaled that it’d be up to lawmakers, not the courts, to address the situation.
Now, the initially mentioned appeal, consisting of a concise notice at present, is in motion. And we’ll continue tracking the Penske v. Google courtroom confrontation’s newest chapter from here.
More immediately, short of launching a massive media arm, Google cannot very well offer a comprehensive news experience without participation and contributions from established outlets.
And if these outlets receive decidedly little search traffic despite being featured in the results – Penske described its publications’ visitor falloffs, to name one example – it’s unclear what incentive they’d have to continue working with Google in the long run.
Enter the search mainstay’s just-expanded “News AI pilot program,” a “licensing program” that technically launched in late 2025 and that is said to pay “participating news publications for the delivery and use of enhanced content to develop new AI features.”
Among said features are “customizable audio briefings” and “in-depth article overviews on Google News publisher pages offering people helpful context before they click,” per the appropriate company, which last month pointed to north of 400 participating publications.
In light of Penske’s aggressive appeal, it seems safe to say that the likes of Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter aren’t on board with the program as things stand.
Nevertheless, CNN, Axios, and Forbes are among the present participants, and time will tell whether the arrangement’s structure sets the stage for lawsuit-ending deals down the line.
