Google's Gemini Faces Legal Challenge in Europe Over Copyright

Google has encountered a significant legal challenge in Europe after an adviser to the EU's top court sided with publishers' complaints. The dispute concerns the use of copyrighted articles by the company's AI chatbot, Gemini, to answer internet users' questions.

The case reflects growing tension between media publishers and major technology platforms. Publishers argue that AI chatbots use their journalistic material without proper compensation. In addition, AI-generated news summaries are increasingly replacing traditional search engine results, which previously allowed users to click through to media outlets' websites. As a result, online publications are losing reader traffic. The issue has already prompted complaints to EU and individual member states' competition regulators.

The case is being reviewed by Advocate General Maciej Szpunar of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The dispute was brought by Hungarian website operator Like Company against the US-based Google.

According to Szpunar's assessment, when a chatbot powered by a large language model (LLM) takes an article from a publisher's website, reuses its content to generate a response, and delivers it to the user, this may, under certain circumstances, infringe the publisher's copyright.

He explained that Gemini's use of material could affect a publisher's reproduction rights in cases where the chatbot gains access to paid content by unlawfully bypassing a paywall or other technical restrictions, or where it uses the text of an article in a way that its original wording remains recognizable.

At the same time, Szpunar clarified that copyright does not protect the facts conveyed in articles, but only the specific form in which the information is expressed.

However, the Advocate General drew a distinction between chatbots' use of articles in responses and the training of AI models. In his view, the use of copyrighted material to train large language models is permitted under the EU's text and data mining exception.

The Court of Justice of the European Union, which in most cases follows the non-binding recommendations of Advocates General, is expected to issue its final ruling in the coming months. A ruling against Google could require the company to pay for the use of such content and provide online publishers with an additional source of revenue.

A Google spokesperson stated that the text and data mining exceptions provided for under EU law are important for competitiveness and AI development in Europe. The company also noted that the Advocate General's position confirms the legality of training AI models on publicly available information.

Google explained that Gemini learns linguistic patterns and generates original responses, rather than directly reproducing existing material. The company also said publishers have the ability to control the use of their content and to opt their material out of AI systems.