Turkey Opens Antitrust Probe Into Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode

Turkey's Competition Authority (RK) has opened a formal antitrust investigation into Google over AI Overviews and AI Mode, and it has already imposed interim measures to protect news publishers while the probe runs.

The regulator announced the case Monday on its website. The investigation, launched under Article 41 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition, will determine whether Google violated Article 6 of the same law — the provision covering abuse of dominant position — through the two AI features offered inside Google Search.

At stake is a question publishers far beyond Turkey have been asking: whether AI-generated search summaries divert the traffic, visibility and revenue that once flowed to the sites producing the content.

What exactly is being investigated?

The RK's preliminary investigation, initiated by a decision dated Aug. 27, 2026, examined four specific issues before escalating to a full probe:

• How AI Overviews and AI Mode transformed users' information-access behavior, and whether this adversely impacted traffic directed to news publishers and other content producers;
• Whether the terms of agreements between Google and news publishers on content use are unfair contracts;
• Whether AI Overviews and AI Mode have an exclusionary effect on news publishers, other content producers, and AI chat assistants;
• Whether Google applies different practices when selecting publishers' content as a source in AI Overviews and AI Mode, or when licensing that content.

For context: AI Overviews is a generative AI feature that displays AI-generated responses at the top of Google Search results, while AI Mode is a conversational interface resembling leading AI chatbots.

What did the interim measures decide?

The preliminary findings were serious enough that the regulator acted before concluding the full investigation. "In addition to launching an investigation, due to the strong suspicion of discriminatory and exploitative behaviors concerning news publishers, the RK decided in its meeting on Oct. 8, 2026, to apply interim measures," the authority said in its statement.

The measures have three stated aims:

• Preventing discrimination against news publishers;
• Ensuring that contract terms reflect the economic value of content usage;
• Allowing publishers to make their own choices about content usage in these services independently of their visibility and indexing in other Google services.

That third point matters most for publishers: it targets the concern that refusing to license content to Google's AI features could cost a publisher its standing elsewhere in Google's ecosystem.

What does this change for publishers and SEO teams?

The probe is confirmed regulator action, not tool-signal speculation, and it comes amid rising global concern over AI Overviews' impact on newsrooms. Many organizations worldwide have reported declining website traffic since the feature's rollout — the context the RK cited in announcing the case.

For news publishers operating in Turkey, the interim measures could in principle constrain how Google selects and licenses their content for AI features while the investigation proceeds. For SEO and content teams internationally, the case adds regulatory weight to an argument publishers have made commercially for two years: that AI summaries built on publisher content should carry negotiated compensation.

The investigation's outcome — and whether Turkey's interim measures survive as durable obligations or are lifted after the full review — is the signal to watch next, alongside any similar moves by other national competition authorities weighing AI Overviews' effect on publisher traffic.