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German court orders Google to stop a false AI Mode answer
A doctor wrongly described as a convicted sex offender won an emergency injunction, and the judges treated the AI text as Google’s own words.
A German court has ordered Google to stop showing false claims about a doctor in AI Mode, the chatbot-style answers inside its search. The Aachen Regional Court issued the emergency order on 24 September 2026 (case 8 O 268/26), legal news site beck-aktuell reports. On Sunday 18 October The Decoder added that Google settled an earlier Munich case rather than see its appeal decided.
The doctor, a former chief physician at a hospital, learned in late August that searching his name with words such as “suspension” brought up a detailed story: harassment of his secretary, dismissal, a suspended sentence. The court’s own records showed the criminal case concerned a different man from the same hospital. Google refused to remove the answers, even after a lawyer’s formal warning.
The court treated the AI text as Google’s own statement, following a Munich Regional Court I ruling of 28 May 2026 on AI Overviews. The news articles Google linked never named the doctor, and the judges said comparing them with the answer would have exposed the error. Each breach can cost up to 250,000 euros, The Decoder reports. Google can still challenge the order.
For brands, a false AI answer about your company is something German courts have now twice treated as Google’s own words.
Sources
- beck-aktuell: Chefarzt zum Sexualstraftäter erklärt: Google muss KI-Halluzination löschen. Checked
- The Decoder: Two German courts now hold Google liable for what its AI overviews say. Checked
Alexandre S.
Alexandre S. is a creative ad strategist and copywriter with ten years' experience in digital marketing across multiple channels.
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