It has also asked for an interim measure to prevent allegedly irreparable harm to them, according to a document seen by Reuters.

Google's AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear above traditional hyperlinks to relevant webpages and are shown to users in more than 100 countries. It began adding advertisements to AI Overviews last May.

The company is making its biggest bet by integrating AI into search, but the move has sparked concerns from some content providers, such as publishers.

The Independent Publishers Alliance document, dated June 30, sets out a complaint to the European Commission and alleges that Google abuses its market power in online search.

"Google's core search engine service is misusing web content for Google's AI Overviews in Google Search, which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers, including news publishers in the form of traffic, readership and revenue loss," the document said.

--Reuters--