Two German regional courts have now classified the text Google produces inside its AI search features as the company’s own statements, which could expose Google to liability for false claims those systems generate about real people. For an agency looking after client websites, the practical effect is that AI-generated answers may be attributed to Google, and a court has ordered Google to stop spreading certain false statements.
What the Aachen court ordered
The doctor had served as chief physician and professor of neuroradiology from 2010 until late June 2026. Additional searches using terms such as "suspension," "termination," and "court proceedings" returned multi-paragraph fabrications. The criminal case the AI referenced had actually been brought against a different former university professor, something the Aachen court could confirm from its own records.
The doctor emailed Google in late August asking for the content to be removed, and a formal legal demand followed the same day. Google confirmed receipt and, in mid-September, declined to act. The false texts remained live. Because the claims could seriously damage the doctor’s professional reputation, the court issued the order without hearing Google first. The court order provides for fines of up to 250,000 euros per occurrence. Google can still challenge the injunction, and the decision is not final.
Why the court treated the AI output as Google’s own speech
The Aachen judges wrote that "the respondent provides AI-generated search and is therefore also responsible for the answers generated in this context." They explicitly cited a Munich Regional Court I ruling and adopted its reasoning: Google does not link to third-party websites, it produces "independent, new, and substantive statements based on an evaluation and combination of content from various third-party websites." That framing shifts Google from the role of a neutral intermediary into the role of a publisher.
The Aachen court also noted that Google could check its AI’s output, for example by comparing answers against the source pages used to generate them, and said the system may have caught the errors itself had it been prompted with the doctor’s objections. A note from a separate analysis by Kanzlei Plutte, published October 12, 2026, makes the doctrinal point sharper: "Die Entscheidung lässt sich auch nicht auf die Aussage reduzieren, Google hafte ausschließlich nach vorherigem Hinweis. Das Gericht begründete die Verantwortlichkeit bereits mit der Bereitstellung der KI-Suche und den eigenständig erzeugten Antworten." In other words, the duty is grounded in Google’s role as the provider of the AI search and in the independently generated answers themselves, not in a narrow duty that only triggers after a complaint.
How the Munich ruling started the line
In that ruling, the judges classified AI-generated summaries as Google’s own statements rather than third-party references. Google announced an appeal, then settled, so no higher court has yet weighed in on the reasoning. Because the appeal was dropped, the Munich decision never produced binding precedent. The Aachen court’s decision matters because it applies the same line of reasoning to a fresh case, suggesting a consistent judicial view is forming across Germany even without a higher-court ruling.
A legal write-up by Kanzlei Plutte, published October 13, 2026, characterizes Munich as expressly rejecting the narrower framework courts had used for Google’s autocomplete feature: “Eine Beschränkung der Haftung auf ein bloßes Notice-and-take-down-Modell nach den Autocomplete-Grundsätzen lehnte das Gericht ausdrücklich ab.” According to Kanzlei Plutte, Munich treated the AI summaries as Google’s own content and applied immediate disturber liability, meaning Google may have had to answer for the statements without first being told to remove them.
How a third ruling, in Hamburg, fits in
A Hamburg court reached liability on a related but different path. According to the same Kanzlei Plutte analysis, the Hamburg court held that Google could not escape liability because “Google hatte weder vorgerichtlich noch im gerichtlichen Verfahren dargelegt, aus welchen Veröffentlichungen sich die beanstandeten Aussagen eigentlich ergeben sollten.” According to that analysis, Google could not explain, either before or during the case, which publications its AI answers were based on, and the analysis describes the court treating the AI’s failure to substantiate its own claims as part of the reason Google was on the hook.
What could come next if this view holds
If the underlying legal view continues to hold, the consequences could reach well beyond individual defamation claims. One question raised by both cases is whether AI answers should also be considered original content for purposes of creators’ rights. The Munich case did not address that, but it is a logical next step.
The cases also highlight a practical enforcement problem. Google can settle individual matters quietly and avoid precedent, while binding rulings only emerge when at least one side pushes the legal process to a final judgment. That may create room for targeted queries designed to produce false, potentially defamatory statements, followed by injunction filings and settlements.
What to do now
For an agency looking after a client’s site, review how Google is handling AI answers related to client content. Three German courts have addressed liability for statements produced by Google’s AI search features. Here is what to put on the checklist.
- Audit your client roster for pages that name a real person with a public role: doctors, lawyers, executives, founders, professors. These are the profiles the Aachen-style cases have targeted so far.
- Review search results for possible false AI answers associated with the client’s name and public role.
- For any false AI answer that names a client, document the prompt, the answer text, and the date, then send a written takedown request to Google and save the response. Consider whether the response addressed the request and whether the content remained live.
- For clients whose content feeds Google’s AI answers, note that a higher-court ruling treating those answers as Google’s own original content could give them a separate claim against Google. The Munich reasoning may point toward that door, even if no court has walked through it yet.
- Track whether the Aachen injunction sticks, whether Google appeals, and whether a higher court rules on the publisher-side question.
FAQ
What did the Aachen court rule about Google’s AI Mode?
The Aachen Regional Court issued a preliminary injunction on September 24, 2026 barring Google from spreading certain statements about a doctor that AI Mode had generated.
How does this connect to the Munich ruling on Google AI liability?
The Munich Regional Court I ruled in late May that Google may be directly liable for the content of its AI Overviews after they allegedly linked two publishers to fraud. Google announced an appeal but settled, so no higher court confirmed the reasoning. A legal analysis by Kanzlei Plutte adds that Munich allegedly rejected a notice-and-take-down model and may have applied immediate disturber liability.
What are the wider risks for Google if this legal view holds?
If courts continue to classify Google as a publisher of its AI’s statements, the company could face liability for false claims in additional cases, while the Aachen injunction provides for fines of up to 250,000 euros per violation. A higher-court ruling that AI answers are original content could also potentially allow publishers whose material feeds those answers to assert claims of their own, which could change how AI search is paid for.
Related coverage
- German Court Holds AI Overviews Liable for False Statements - NewSunSEO
- Google Just Made AI Overviews More Link-Friendly: What This Changes for SEO in 2026 - NewSunSEO
- AI Mode vs. AI Overviews: Two Behaviors, One Google - NewSunSEO
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