The case is LTL LED LLCv. GoogleLLC (Minn.); Please refer to page 104 of this PDF for revised complaints. The lawsuit was filed in Minnesota court in March, but was removed in federal court. The plaintiff is a business, four officers, all of which were also mentioned by name in the Google AI overview (assuming the exhibit attached to the complaint is correct).
The complaint alleges that none of the sites linked by the report actually reports Wolf River facing a Minnesota AG lawsuit or committing other crimes of misconduct. According to the complaint,
Google cited many sources that support false claims. However, in reality, it didn't actually include the information Google claimed.
The complaint also claims certain lost businesses.
On March 3, 2025, the customer ended its relationship with Wolf River. The customer mentioned the lawsuit that appeared when he “Googled” Wolf River. The total contract price was $39,680.00.
On March 4, 2025, a customer met with Wolf River sales representatives and refused to do business with Wolf River. The customer said they were conducting an investigation online and saw the Wolf River being sued by the Minnesota Attorney General. The customer's solar system proposal was $26,400.00.
On March 5, 2025, a customer contacted Wolf River sales representatives and expressed concern that they were being sued by the Minnesota Attorney General for deceptive business practices. The customer sent a screenshot of one of Google's false statements that Wolf River is currently facing lawsuits from the Minnesota Attorney General for claiming that it is litigating due to allegations of false sales practices.
On March 5, 2025, Wolf River customers identified with contract number YKUFU-AH78H78H-PMNDF-K3C7V contacted Wolf River and expressed concern as Google's publications were sued by customers for misleading. The CEO of Wolf River chose to terminate his relationship with Wolf River for Google, despite reassuring the customer that Google's publication was false….The total contract price was $150,000.00.
On March 11, 2025, the nonprofit informed Wolf River that it would “plug” their business relationships, for “several lawsuits from last year” and “the Attorney General's Office.” The customer has finished a solar project priced at $147,400.00 and a lighting project priced at $26,644.12.
This is one of the exhibits from the complaints. Again, remember that LTL claims that the allegations here are hallucinated by Google's AI and have never actually been made in an existing outlet.
When I did the same Google search, I didn't see any AI overview, but it appears that after Google learned of the lawsuit (or just accusations), it turned off the feature of those specific searches. One interesting twist: the complaint claims that the search Wolf River Electric Autocomplete phrase
“Wolf River Electric Litigation”, “Wolf River Electric Litigation Reddit”, “Wolf River Electric Litigation Update Minnesota”, “Wolf River Electric Litigation Update”, “Wolf River Electric Litigation 2022”, “Wolf River Electric Litigation 2023”, “Wolf River Electric Litigation Minnesota”
And that these phrases tend to lead to an overview of hallucinated AI. However, as I read the complaints, the claim that AI overviews are being extended honorary lib does not mean that it is the automatic compression itself (with the exception of AI overviews). Some foreign courts are considering the issue of autocomplete's honor and lib loss, but I don't know of any American cases that dealt with it.
See my views on how such cases should be analyzed A big honorary lib loss model? Responsibility for AI output article. Beware of recent things Waltersv. Openai A rather different fact is involved in the decision from a Georgia court that refused liability. In particular, the LTL case includes perhaps personal figures, evidence that some people believed the allegations, and evidence that the allegations led to provable financial losses.
