EU Court Advocate General: Google Chatbot Summaries May Infringe Publisher Copyrights
In Case C-250/25 (Like Company v. Google), EU Court Advocate General Maciej Szpunar opined that RAG-based AI chatbot summaries of news articles may constitute 'reproduction' and 'communication to the public' under EU law, potentially infringing exclusive publisher rights.
On November 3, 2026, Maciej Szpunar, First Advocate General at the European Court of Justice, delivered his formal opinion in Case C-250/25 (Like Company v. Google). The opinion suggests that AI chatbots based on Large Language Models (LLMs), which use Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to search and summarize online news articles, may constitute acts of 'reproduction' and 'communication to the public' within the meaning of EU copyright law.
The case stems from a lawsuit by Like Company, a Hungarian operator of internet portals publishing news articles. The company alleged that AI services like Google Gemini infringed its exclusive right to authorize or prohibit the online reproduction and communication of its publications by generating summaries without permission or compensation. Szpunar's opinion addresses questions referred by a Hungarian court regarding whether such AI usage violates EU rules on press publisher rights.
While an Advocate General's opinion is not binding on the Court, it often significantly influences the final judgment. If the Court adopts this view, it could force AI companies to adhere more strictly to copyright licensing agreements in the European market, altering the economic relationship between AI providers and the news industry and increasing compliance costs and legal risks for AI products.