CADE is considering a separate investigation into Google's AI scraping of news content, the agency's president said.
Google could be subject to investigation in Brazil for its use of artificial intelligence to scrape news from websites, the interim president of the country's competition authority said.
Gustavo Augusto Freitas de Lima had been prepared to close the investigation into Google News and Google Search for the company's scraping of news. However, he said at an event in New York* on Tuesday that AI scraping raises additional concerns.
As lead councilor in the scraping probe, he had voted to close the case, but another member of the agency's Tribunal sought additional time to review the matter.
De Lima said that agency studies suggested that Google’s search engine benefits news outlets by directing users to the original sources. However, Google's "snippets" function uses AI to create automated summaries of third-party content.
“While search engines tend to be more beneficial when users are actively looking for news, it is unclear whether the same logic applies to AI-generated news summaries,”
he said.
Brazil’s competition watchdog is likely to conclude the Google scraping case by the end of the year — either closing it or moving to a more in-depth administrative process. De Lima said CADE’s Tribunal is expected to decide whether to open an investigation into the use of AI for scraping news content.
Since 2019, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense, or CADE, has been delving into allegations of the improper use of third-party journalistic content on Google News and Google Search. Brazilian journalism associations say the US Big Tech company should fairly remunerate news outlets.
Councilor Diogo Thomson de Oliveira requested additional time to review the case during a session held in early June. In line with CADE’s guidelines, Councilor Thomson in August invited civil society to provide input.
Several journalistic institutions submitted formal contributions to CADE to help the agency understand potential anticompetitive practices by Google.
CADE’s interim president had been inclined to close the current probe, but five other members of the CADE Tribunal have yet to cast their votes.
South Africa’s antitrust regulator is also concerned about the impact of digital giants and AI technologies on the country’s media sector. Earlier this month South Africa’s Competition Commission introduced a broad, R688 million (approx. $40.6 million) support package for the country’s media industry, agreed with global digital platforms.
According to the Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI) conducted by the Commission, Google holds a dominant position in the internet search market in South Africa. News-related queries account for 5–10% of all search traffic and generate a significant share of the company’s advertising revenue. However, the company does not compensate South African media outlets for displayed or summarised news content.
The Inquiry also proposes additional binding remedies for major digital platforms to foster fairness and sustainability in South Africa’s media landscape.
*“The Global Antitrust Economics Conference,” Concurrences, New York City, Nov. 18, 2025.
Source: MLex
