[The AI overview rewrites and judges results] in its own words and according to its own structure [...] [and makes claims] that are not even made in the search results. [...] [Google is liable] because it alone has influence over the AI's offering and the algorithms with which the AI operates. [...] [An AI's opinion is] not the expression of an acquired conviction of the persons expressing it, but the result of an algorithm.
Image from The Decoder
For certain searches, Google's AI Overviews told readers that two Munich publishers were known for dubious business practices, subscription traps and scams, with a summary, red flags and tips for users. None of the linked sources said any of it: the overview had folded facts about other, genuinely dubious companies into the plaintiffs. They sent a cease-and-desist and Google argued that users know to check AI output. In late May 2026 the Regional Court of Munich I (case 26 O 869/26) granted a preliminary injunction, holding that an overview is Google's own statement rather than a list of somebody else's, so the limited liability search engines enjoy under German case law does not reach it, and that a warning to verify does not excuse a claim the sources never made. Google pays 80 percent of the costs and is appealing; a Berlin court took the opposite view in June in a different case.
Regional Court of Munich I, in The Decoder