AGCOM vs Google, the clash over the use of AI in search on the European Commission’s agenda

The Italian Communications Authority has recently taken a formal action that shifts the confrontation between the tech giants and the world of editorial information directly to Brussels.

During the meeting held on April 29, the body led by Giacomo Lasorella decided to send a report to the European Commission regarding Google’s new AI-powered search services, specifically AI Overviews and AI Mode.

The decision, taken by majority despite the vote against by Commissioner Elisa Giomi, calls for a thorough assessment of the compatibility of these tools with the Digital Services Act, the European regulation governing the activities of large digital platforms.

AGCOM against Google: the crisis of visits and zero-click searches

AGCOM’s intervention stems from a complaint filed by the Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers, which has highlighted how the introduction of these functionalities is deeply altering the circulation of online content.

Through the AI Overviews system, the search engine no longer simply provides a list of hyperlinks, but processes a textual synthesis that provides a thorough answer to the user’s question.

This process yields what analysts define as “zero-click search“: the reader obtains the information they want directly on Google’s page, without needing to click on the websites that originally produced and verified those news items.

The economic repercussions for the sector are immediate. Many editorial sites have recorded a reduction in the visibility of their articles, a factor that directly affects the financial sustainability of the outlets, especially for independent outlets or smaller outlets that rely on organic traffic for selling subscriptions or advertising space.

According to the FIEG, this mechanism not only deprives authors of vital resources, but risks impoverishing freedom of information and the pluralism of sources in Italy.

Systemic risks and information accuracy

The referral to the European Commission is based on the possible violation of Articles 27, 34, and 35 of the Digital Services Act. These rules require large search engines, classified as VLOSE, to meet precise transparency obligations for recommendation systems and mitigation of systemic risks.

The Italian Authority calls for evaluating whether the AI-generated synthesis could compromise citizens’ right to accurate and diverse information.

Another critical point concerns the quality of generated content. Often systems based on language models stumble into the so-called hallucinations, providing inaccurate or factually incorrect information entirely absent from the sources consulted.

The difficulty for the user to quickly verify the reliability of the AI’s answer represents, according to the Authority, a potential danger to the accuracy of the public debate.

A permanent forum for copyright

Beyond the European report, AGCOM has announced the establishment of a permanent roundtable. This initiative aims to bring together representatives from Google, other technology platforms, and publishers at the same table, with the aim of addressing the issue of copyright and fair compensation.

The discussion must establish new balances for the use of protected content by generative AI systems, ensuring that the technological transformation does not take place at the expense of those who professionally invest in producing high-quality content.

It will now be up to the European authorities to determine whether the current online search configuration complies with the rules of the digital single market or whether a normative intervention is necessary to protect the European information ecosystem.