The Munich Regional Court finds that Google can be held responsible for false information generated by its AI Overviews summaries in a court decision handed down on June 11.
German justice has just handed down an important decision regarding artificial intelligence from Google. The Munich Regional Court ruled that the search engine could be held directly responsible for the erroneous information produced by its AI Overviews. Google announces that it will appeal this decision.
Google’s AI Overviews questioned by two German publishers
The case began with the complaint of two publishers based in Munich. By searching Google, they discovered that the summaries generated by Google’s AI Overviews associated them with fraudulent business behavior. According to the plaintiffs, Google’s AI had actually mixed information about other companies actually involved in scams with information about their companies. The publishers asked Google to react initially by sending a letter of formal notice. What the web giant did not do, pushing the plaintiffs to turn to German justice.
German justice considers AI Overviews responses as Google’s own content
In its decision of June 11, 2026, the Munich Regional Court found that Google’s AI Overviews had created non-existent links between the two plaintiff companies and other companies engaging in fraudulent behavior. The central question in this judgment was whether the AI Overviews could be considered as simple search results or not.
Google argued that it was not responsible for processing the data and that these summaries did not constitute its own content. An argument rejected by the court. The judges considered that the false information fell within directly the responsibility of Google since they had been produced by its own artificial intelligence systems. In addition, German justice ruled that only Google was able to correct the false information generated by its artificial intelligence system. The court then ordered Google to remove the relevant content and ensure that its system no longer generates similar false allegations regarding the two plaintiffs.
Google will appeal this decision
In its defense, the tech giant said the vast majority of “AI Overviews” were accurate, although there could be cases where the summaries disregarded context or misinterpreted content found on the web by its AI. The company also argued that Internet users know that “ AI-generated results cannot be blindly followed “. An argument which did not convince the judges. According to them, the fact that a statement can be verified or refuted by additional research does not relieve its author of responsibility.
The judgment is however not final, Google has announced that it will appeal the decision.
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Source :
BFMTV
