Google AI Overviews: The Berlin Ruling and Its SEO Impact

The Berlin ruling in brief: what the judge decided

On June 16, 2026, the Berlin court issued a ruling that is set to spark debate across European digital marketing. The case was brought by a perfume manufacturer. It complained that Google AI Overviews showed its brand next to low-cost imitation products, with links to competitors' sites.

The judge dismissed the claim. According to the court, AI Overviews are simply a new search result format. As a result, Google does not exercise decisive influence over how content is selected and presented. In essence, the search engine is treated as an aggregator, not a liable publisher.

This distinction is crucial. It determines the level of legal liability Google can bear when information is wrong or harmful to brands. For the original news story, see the full analysis published by The Decoder.

The clash with Munich: a legal landscape that is still fragmented

The Berlin ruling is not a unanimous position. On the contrary, a Munich court recently held that Google is directly responsible for false or misleading AI answers. That said, the two cases differ substantially in the facts at issue.

Even so, opposing decisions within the same German legal system create a climate of uncertainty. Businesses operating online still lack a stable regulatory framework. As a result, digital brand protection strategies need to be built on flexible foundations.

At the European level, the issue ties in with the Digital Services Act and the ongoing discussions around the AI Act. So more rulings and regulatory guidance are likely to emerge in the coming months. SMEs would do well to follow developments closely.

How AI Overviews work and why they affect SEO

AI Overviews are boxes automatically generated by Google. They appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) and summarize answers to users' queries. They draw on content extracted from third-party sources indexed by the search engine.

For SMEs, the problem is twofold. First, these boxes reduce the click-through rate to the organic results below them. They can also tie a brand to incorrect information or unwanted competitors, as in the perfume company's case cited in the ruling.

According to recent Gartner data, traditional search volumes are set to shrink gradually as AI interfaces spread. So managing your presence in AI Overviews becomes a strategic front separate from classic SEO. At SHM Studio, we already track it as a separate KPI for our clients.

Immediate impact for Italian SMEs: brand safety and organic visibility

The Berlin ruling has real practical implications. If Google is not held responsible for the content in AI Overviews, a harmed company's options for legal recourse shrink significantly. So brand protection has to be proactive, not reactive.

For Italian retail SMEs, the risk is especially high. For example, a maker of artisanal goods could see its name linked to low-cost imitations in AI answers. Likewise, a B2B company could find itself placed alongside competitors with very different price positioning.

The most exposed operational areas are the following:

• Brand reputation: unwanted associations in AI boxes can shape how people see your brand before they even visit your site.
• Organic traffic: AI Overviews intercept high-commercial-intent queries, reducing clicks to product pages.
• Keyword strategy: informational queries are increasingly handled by AI, shifting SEO value toward authoritative, structured content.

For this reason, reviewing your SEO strategy in light of these changes can no longer wait.

What no one is saying: the ruling changes the relationship between brands and the SERP

There's one aspect that is rarely discussed openly. Classifying AI Overviews as a simple search format puts the full burden of protection on the brand. In other words, you can no longer expect Google to correct harmful associations on its own.

This changes the paradigm of your digital marketing strategy. Businesses need to invest more systematically in producing authoritative content. Google tends to favor sources with strong E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), including when composing AI Overviews.

Beyond that, structuring data with schema markup and keeping information consistent across all platforms become even more important levers. In short, brands that manage their digital identity well are less exposed to the risk of distorted representations by AI.

What to do now: three operational priorities for SMEs

In light of the ruling and the evolving landscape, we can identify a few concrete priorities. They apply to both B2B SMEs and retail companies.

1. Audit your presence in AI Overviews. First, check how Google represents your brand in AI answers. This requires systematic SERP monitoring for brand and category keywords. Our SEO copywriting team can support this analysis.

2. Strengthen your editorial authority. Next, it's essential to produce content that Google can reliably cite in AI Overviews. In-depth articles, original data and verifiable sources raise the likelihood of being represented correctly. Your company blog is once again a top strategic asset.

3. Protect your brand across channels. Finally, consistent information across Google Business Profile, Wikipedia, industry sites and social platforms reduces the risk of unwanted contamination in AI answers. An integrated digital marketing strategy should include this as an ongoing activity.

The medium-term outlook: toward European regulation of AI search

Today's legal fragmentation is not sustainable in the long term. So it's reasonable to expect the European Commission to step in with specific guidelines for AI search engines by 2027-2028. The framework of the European AI Act already offers some foundations for building transparency obligations for generative search systems.

In the meantime, SMEs can't afford to wait. Strategic decisions on organic visibility need to be made today, in a context where the rules of the game are changing fast. Those who invest now in structured content, editorial authority and digital brand protection will gain a significant competitive edge.

If you want to explore what these changes mean for your strategy, the SHM Studio team is available for a consultation. Our active services include managing Google Ads campaigns, technical and editorial SEO, and AI integration into your marketing processes. LinkedIn campaigns are also a complementary channel to reduce your dependence on organic visibility on Google.