Advocate General in Like Company v Google: a chatbot's answer may infringe press publishers' rights

On 3 November 2026 Advocate General Maciej Szpunar delivered his Opinion in Case C-250/25 Like Company v Google Ireland, the first case on generative AI and copyright before the Court of Justice. A Hungarian publisher objects to the Gemini chatbot taking over the content of its articles in its answers to users.

In the Advocate General's view, a chatbot that retrieves a press publication while processing a query and uses it to generate an answer may infringe the press publishers' right under Article 15(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/790. Relevant acts of reproduction occur if the chatbot accessed the publication unlawfully, in particular by circumventing technical measures, or if its form of expression is recognisable in the answer to such an extent that the user no longer needs to read the original article. If it is systematically recognisable in that way, there is also a making available to the public. These acts may be attributed to the chatbot provider where they are inherent to its business model or where it has failed to put appropriate measures in place.

He proposes that the questions on model training be declared inadmissible, as nothing suggests that the publisher's articles were used to train Gemini. For the sake of completeness, he adds that the training of large language models falls under the text and data mining exception in Article 4 of Directive 2019/790. That exception, however, applies only to lawfully accessible content, and only where rightholders have not reserved such use. Providers of general-purpose AI models must respect such a reservation under Article 53(1)(c) of the AI Act as well.

The Opinion does not bind the Court of Justice; judgment will be delivered at a later date.