Google Gemini may breach EU copyright rules when it generates answers for users using news articles, according to The Next Web on Tuesday. This opinion comes from an adviser to the bloc's highest court, who distinguished between training systems and showing protected content in chatbot replies.
Key takeaways
- An adviser to the EU's highest court delivered an opinion on Google Gemini and copyright on Tuesday.
- Training models on protected material is allowed under EU rules, but showing content in replies creates issues.
- Hungarian news publisher Like Company sued Google Ireland over article summaries.
- Judges usually follow adviser opinions, and a final ruling will arrive in coming months.
Does Google Gemini violate EU copyright rules?
Feeding copyrighted material into models is freely permitted under text and data mining rules, according to Advocate General Maciej Szpunar. The rules change when a chatbot pulls a publisher article, uses it to build a reply, and shows that reply to a person. In those instances, press publisher rights might face infringement under specific conditions. Szpunar also noted that copyright guards how facts are written, not the actual facts inside news reports.
How generative AI faces legal challenges
This matter involves case C-250/25, marking the first time the Court of Justice of the European Union checks generative AI against copyright. Hungarian publisher Like Company brought a lawsuit against Google Ireland after Gemini built summaries of stories in reply to user questions. The company claimed the system shared content without consent and went past short extracts. A Budapest court sent these questions to the EU court in April 2025. Google defended its technology by stating it does not memorize articles and that outputs fit under text and data mining exceptions. Google also questioned Hungarian law application because the system was not trained in Hungary.
What happens next?
Advocate General opinions do not bind the court, though judges follow them mostly. A final ruling should arrive during the coming months. The decision could clear up how chatbots must respect press publishers' rights, which came from the 2019 copyright reform. Publishers and tech firms currently fight over copyrighted material in courts across both sides of the Atlantic through licensing fights and web scraping lawsuits. The Luxembourg case centers on chatbot outputs rather than the data used for training.
Frequently asked questions
An adviser to the bloc's highest court stated that Google Gemini might infringe EU copyright rules when it uses news articles to generate answers for users.
Yes, feeding copyrighted material into model training is freely permitted under the text and data mining exception according to the Advocate General.
Hungarian news publisher Like Company sued Google Ireland after Gemini generated summaries of its articles in response to user queries.
A Budapest court referred the questions regarding the lawsuit to the European Union court in April 2025.
Advocate General opinions are not binding on the court, although judges follow them in most cases, and a final ruling is expected in the coming months.
Based on reporting by The Next Web. Read the original article
