A second German court rules that Google is liable for false claims in its AI search summaries
The Aachen Regional Court followed an earlier Munich ruling and treated AI Overviews as Google's own statements, not as links to other sites.
In a preliminary injunction, the Aachen Regional Court has barred Google from spreading false claims about a doctor through its AI-generated search results. Google's system had attributed criminal allegations and proceedings to him that actually involved a different person. The court relied on a ruling from Munich Regional Court I in late May, which found Google directly liable for the content of its AI search summaries after its AI falsely linked two Munich publishers to fraud schemes. Both courts treated the AI-generated text as Google's own statements, not as references to third-party websites. Content that a platform only links to can receive more lenient treatment, while a company's own statements make it directly responsible. Google appealed the Munich decision but then settled, which meant no higher court issued a binding ruling. The Aachen case shows that lower courts are applying the same reasoning anyway. According to The Decoder, if this view holds up, the consequences for Google could go well beyond individual false claims. AI-generated answers would be treated like content the company publishes itself. That would expose search providers operating in Germany to direct legal claims over errors their summaries produce about real people and businesses.