Google ran into fresh legal headwinds in Europe on Thursday after an adviser to the EU’s top court supported a complaint from publishers over the Gemini chatbot’s use of their copyrighted articles to answer users’ questions.
The dispute highlights escalating friction between news publishers and major online platforms as AI chatbots increasingly draw on press reporting in ways publishers argue are not properly compensated. That standoff has already spilled into formal complaints filed with EU and national antitrust regulators.
Advocate General Maciej Szpunar, who advises the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union, weighed in on a case brought by Hungarian website operator Like Company against US-based Google over its artificial intelligence chatbot Gemini.
If the court ultimately rules against Google, the decision could require the tech giant to pay fees for using such content—an outcome that could provide a much-needed boost to online media outlets such as Like Company. Many publishers say their audiences have eroded as AI-generated news summaries from tools like Gemini increasingly substitute for conventional search results that typically direct readers to publishers through hyperlinks.
“When an LLM (large language model)-driven chatbot retrieves publication from a press publisher’s website, reuses that publication to generate an answer, and provides that answer to the user, the press publisher’s right may be infringed in certain circumstances,” Mr Szpunar said.
According to Szpunar, Gemini’s responses can fall within publishers’ reproduction rights in situations where chatbots reach articles by unlawfully bypassing paywalls or other technical barriers, or where the system reuses “the form of expression of that publication in a recognisable manner”.
He also drew a line between protected expression and unprotected information, noting that copyright does not extend to the “mere facts” contained in press reports, but applies “only the specific form of expression”.
At the same time, Szpunar said that using copyrighted material to train LLMs—AI systems built on massive text datasets to generate human-like answers and produce summaries—is “freely permitted under the text and data mining exception.”
The court, which often follows its advisers’ non-binding views, is expected to deliver its ruling in the coming months.
A Google spokesperson responded: “European law’s text and datamining exceptions are vital for Europe’s competitiveness and AI development, and we acknowledge the Advocate General’s opinion recognising that EU law permits AI training on publicly available information.
“Gemini learns linguistic patterns to create original outputs rather than replicating content, supported by extensive publisher controls that give rightsholders clear choice and the ability to opt out.”
