Google said on June 12 that it would appeal a German court ruling holding it directly liable in Germany for false claims generated by AI Overviews, the summaries shown above standard search results.

The Regional Court of Munich issued a temporary injunction the same day after AI Overviews falsely linked two Munich-based publishers to scams, subscription traps, and shady business practices, even though the underlying search results cited by the feature did not make those claims.

The court held that the summaries were Google’s own statements because the feature combined and evaluated multiple sources to generate new claims.

This distinguished the case from older German rulings that treated classic search and autocomplete as indirect infringement.

The court also said Google could not rely on host-provider protections under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The ruling adds to a broader European debate over liability for AI-generated defamation.

🔗 Source: Reuters

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