Is AI Under Fire? What Affiliate Marketers Need to Know
People have hailed AI as the future of digital marketing, but it's now under fire in Europe. The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation into Google’s use of publisher and YouTube content to train and power its AI services.
For affiliate marketers, this isn’t just a headline. This is a sign that how AI handles content, and how your site gets traffic, might shift.
What’s Happening
- Regulators are examining whether Google unfairly uses online publisher content and YouTube videos without proper compensation.
- The concern: Google may give itself privileged access to content, disadvantaging rival AI developers.
- This investigation is part of the EU’s broader crackdown on Big Tech, especially around AI and digital markets.
In short: the EU wants to know if Google is playing fair, or if its AI services are built on content taken without proper terms.
Why It Matters for Affiliate Marketers
Affiliate marketing thrives on visibility. If AI‑powered search results summarize content instead of directing traffic to your site, clicks — and commissions — can drop.
Here’s what’s at stake:
- Search Ecosystem Shift: Google’s AI summaries may reduce direct traffic to affiliate sites.
- Content Value: If regulators force Google to compensate publishers, affiliates may benefit from fairer recognition of their content.
- Competition Landscape: New rules could open space for alternative AI tools or search engines, diversifying traffic sources.
- Compliance Pressure: Affiliates must stay alert to evolving EU regulations, especially around transparency and fair use of content.
When we look at the risks and opportunities of the EU’s investigation, four themes stand out.
Traffic is the most immediate concern: AI‑generated summaries may reduce clicks to affiliate sites, but regulation could restore visibility and even compensation.
AI currently uses affiliate content without payment, but new rules could generate revenue streams if compensation frameworks are introduced.
In terms of competition, Google’s dominance limits alternatives, but this same scrutiny could open space for rival AI tools and new channels.
Finally, regulation itself brings complexity for affiliates, but clearer rules could also level the playing field and make the ecosystem fairer for everyone.
Action Points for Affiliates
So what should you do while regulators debate?
- Monitor EU rulings: outcomes could directly affect how your content is surfaced in search.
- Diversify traffic: don't rely solely on Google. Explore social, email, and other AI alternatives.
- Value your content: treat your articles as assets. If compensation frameworks emerge, you’ll want to be ready.
AI under fire
AI isn’t just under fire; it’s under scrutiny.
For affiliate marketers, this is both a challenge and an opening. The EU’s investigation signals that content creators matter, and the way AI uses their work is no longer invisible.
So while regulators debate fairness, affiliates can prepare: diversify, protect, and rehearse resilience.
In the shifting landscape of AI, those who adapt will thrive.
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Recent Comments
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Thanks for letting us know about this. Chances are that other countries will start thinking along the same lines...
It's absolutely true. I tend to be quite happy with the AI summary and don't get to the website itself most of the time.
Thank you for this post with very valuable content! All affiliate marketer should pay attention to the entire content!
Good Morning LucLifcoach
What a great article! Thank You so much for the heads up. I think the EU has a point. I've often been surprised about the AI summaries you get when you type in a question, however, most of the time it will show websites on the side to click on, but I see where they are going with this. Also, I do think it is about time that someone puts Google in check! Maybe they will finally come back down to Earth! Again, Thank You for this post.
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You hooked me with the title.
I agree with your analysis to a point. I believe the framing is slightly off.
This investigation isn't fundamentally about AI being "under fire".
It's about Google’s strategy to monopolize data and traffic. We've watched Google progressively build higher "fences" around its data garden. When Jaaxy broke, it was due to the crackdown on JavaScript scrapers. Perplexity, Claude, and, to some extent, ChatGPT all relied on scrapers to collect data. Everyone was eating Google's Lunch. You can follow up on this post. Google Just Took Its Toys and Locked the Playground Where does your organic traffic come from? Google made billions on it. Now, when was the last time you "Googled" something? No, seriously, the only thing I Google now is images that I can recreate for my avatars. If I am doing this, others are as well. This drop in search traffic has cost Google billions in revenue.
So they built a fence.
Their fence ensures that they have the freshest data to build their own AI (Gemini) while denying equal access to the competitors.
The real threat to affiliates isn't just a summary box. It’s the fact that Google is using our collective content, the very lifeblood of the open web, to cement a level of data control that makes true competition impossible.
The EU is trying to challenge the gatekeeper's power.
Are we going to consolidate to Google and Copilot, or will we have a free and open AI where I can use Perplexity and Claude or come of the smaller ones like Mistral.
In short, the image shows that the affiliate's journey to financial reward has been blocked by a financial wall, forcing the creator to seek a new, more difficult path to reclaim the profitability of their content.
Thank you for engaging so deeply with the post. I really appreciate the way you reframed the issue. You are right that the EU investigation is not simply about AI being under fire, but about Google’s strategy to fence off data and traffic. That distinction matters.
I like how you described the “data garden” and the fences being built. For affiliates, that is the heart of the challenge: our content fuels the ecosystem, but the gatekeepers decide who gets access and how value flows back. Whether it is Jaaxy breaking, scrapers being blocked, or Gemini training on fresh data, the pattern is clear. Control of information is becoming the new battleground.
Where I think our perspectives meet is in the impact on affiliates. Whether we call it AI under fire or Google’s monopoly under fire, the result is the same. Our journey to profitability is being reshaped by walls we did not build. The EU’s pushback may open cracks in those walls, but in the meantime, diversification and resilience are key.
Your closing image of the affiliate path blocked by a financial wall is powerful. It reminds me that our work is not just about adapting to tools, but about defending the open web as a space where creators can thrive. How do you see affiliates best navigating this wall in the months ahead?