German court rules Google is liable for false answers in AI Overviews

A German court has ruled that Google is directly liable for what its AI-generated search overviews say, in a decision that legal observers say could ripple far beyond Germany. As The Decoder reported, the Regional Court of Munich hit Google with a temporary injunction barring it from spreading false claims about two Munich-based publishers through its AI Overviews.

At the center of the ruling is a distinction the court drew sharply: AI Overviews are not search results. They are Google’s own content.

According to the court, Google’s AI Overviews had falsely tied the two publishing companies to scams, subscription traps, and shady business practices for certain search queries. The AI mixed up information about genuinely sketchy companies with the plaintiffs and drew connections that appeared in none of the linked sources. The publishers sent a cease-and-desist letter; Google didn’t respond appropriately, the court found.

The judges classified Google as a direct infringer because the overview “rewrites and judges results in its own words and according to its own structure.” In the case at hand, the AI opened with confident assertions like “Yes, [company] is known for dubious business practices,” then assembled its own summary, red flags, and user tips. Because Google built the AI, offered it, and controls its algorithms, the court ruled, Google owns what it produces.

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Crucially, the court found that existing case law shielding search engines doesn’t apply. Germany’s Federal Court of Justice had previously granted traditional search engines limited liability because they merely point to outside websites. But AI Overviews generate “independent, new, and substantive statements,” the Munich court said, and only Google is positioned to check them against the underlying sources.

Google’s defense—that users can check the linked sources themselves and generally know not to blindly trust AI—fell flat. The court ruled that the ability to disprove a statement through further research doesn’t exempt a publisher from liability, drawing a parallel to press law, where outlets are liable for standalone teasers even if readers never click through. The reasoning is bolstered by research showing users almost never click source links in AI Overviews.

The court also weakened free speech protections for AI output, writing that an AI’s opinion is “not the expression of an acquired conviction” but “the result of an algorithm” and largely an expression of Google’s business interests.

Google was ordered to cover 80% of the legal costs, with the plaintiffs paying 10 percent each. The court said the ruling may have international reach.

The decision lands as scrutiny of AI accuracy intensifies. An analysis by AI startup Oumi for The New York Times found Google’s AI Overviews, running the current Gemini 3 model, answered correctly 91% of the time. At Google’s scale, that still means millions of wrong answers every hour—and a legal exposure that could extend to rivals like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.