In April 2025, a preliminary question was referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) by the Budapest Környéki Törvényszék (Hungary). The claimant in the original case before the Hungarian court is Like Company, which sued Google Ireland Limited.
The dispute concerns the display, reproduction, and public presentation of editorial content from press publishers through the responses of a chatbot (conversational robot) based on a large language model (LLM). Specifically, it is being examined whether the operation of such an artificial intelligence system constitutes an infringement of intellectual property or related rights.
The referring court has posed four questions:
- Public presentation: Whether the display of portions of text reproducing press content in chatbot responses constitutes a public presentation within the meaning of Articles 15 of Directive 2019/790 and 3 of Directive 2001/29; and whether the nature of the operation of LLMs affects this.
- Reproduction during training: Whether the training process of an LLM constitutes reproduction within the meaning of Article 2 of Directive 2001/29.
- Exception for text and data mining: If the answer to question 2 is positive, whether this reproduction is covered by the exception in Article 4 of Directive 2019/790.
- Reproduction when creating a response: Whether it constitutes reproduction when, upon a user’s command, the chatbot generates a response that includes, in whole or in part, content from press publications.
The referring national court accepted Like Company’s request to refer the matter to the CJEU, as it argued that this is a new and unresolved legal issue arising from the emergence of LLM technology and artificial intelligence, requiring interpretation from the CJEU to ensure the proper administration of justice.
The decision is expected to influence the way EU law is applied, particularly concerning the protection of intellectual property rights and the broader regulation of the digital market.
You can view the full request for a preliminary ruling here.
See the full request for a preliminary ruling here.