Germany regulator says Google AI Overviews face media laws

Germany’s media regulator said Google’s AI Overviews and Perplexity AI fell under German media law, a move that pushed AI-generated search answers closer to the rules applied to broadcasters and online media.

The Commission for Licensing and Supervision, known as ZAK, said the systems should be treated as content providers rather than passive hosts of third-party material. ZAK said the European Union’s Digital Services Act liability shield did not fit these products because the output was not merely user content displayed without interference; the AI systems were creating or curating the response themselves.

ZAK said the ruling was the first time it had formally determined that German media law applied to AI search and AI chatbots. The cases were handled by the Media Authority Hamburg-Schleswig Holstein and the Media Authority Berlin-Brandenburg, two of the 14 state media authorities that make up ZAK and oversee nationwide private broadcasters and online media under Germany’s interstate media treaty.

The decision built on a separate court fight in Munich. The Regional Court of Munich issued a preliminary injunction on May 28, 2026, in case 26 O 869/26, against Google over false statements generated by AI Overviews. The case involved AI summaries that linked two Munich publishers to scams and dubious business practices in ways not supported by the cited sources. Google said in June that it would appeal the ruling.

Perplexity, which was also named in the German proceedings, said it complies with European privacy rules and holds SOC 2 Type II security and privacy certification. Germany’s media authorities had opened proceedings against Google and Perplexity earlier in 2026, signaling that the regulator was already testing whether AI answer tools belonged inside existing media oversight rather than outside it as generic software.

The stakes go beyond one country’s legal system. AI-generated answers now appear in highly visible parts of search results, often ahead of links that publishers rely on for traffic. German officials said that shift can disadvantage publishers and affect media pluralism, especially when a tool decides which sources to show, summarize, or recommend alongside an answer. If other regulators follow Germany’s lead, AI search products may face closer review over accuracy, source selection, and the legal responsibility that comes with replacing links with machine-written summaries.