EU Advocate General examines AI chatbots and press publishers’ rights

On 3 November 2026 Advocate General Maciej Szpunar delivered an opinion in Case C-250/25, Like Company, about EU press publishers' rights and an AI chatbot that retrieves online articles to answer questions. The opinion advises the Court of Justice; it is not the Court's judgment and does not itself determine liability in the Hungarian proceedings. The judges may agree or disagree, and the national court must decide the underlying dispute.

Facts, expression and generated answers

The opinion distinguishes news facts from the form in which a publisher expresses them. It considers whether a chatbot retrieves a protected publication and recognisably reuses its expression so that the answer effectively removes the user's need to consult the original. The manner of access, including circumvention of effective technical restrictions, can also be relevant. The Advocate General's analysis is conditional; mentioning a news fact or linking to an article is not automatically the infringement described in the opinion.

Training is a separate question

The Advocate General proposes that the Court declare the questions on model training inadmissible in this case, because the necessary evidence was not established and the questions are hypothetical in the dispute. He also discusses the EU text-and-data-mining exception for completeness. Those remarks are his legal analysis, not a final ruling that all training is lawful or that every use of a publisher's work is permitted.

What should publishers and providers watch?

The opinion discusses potential responsibility of chatbot providers and measures to address infringing use. Publishers should preserve evidence of the publication, access restrictions and disputed output; providers should examine sources, access terms and safeguards with qualified counsel. These are practical steps, not a finding against any particular service. Follow the Court's eventual judgment and the national proceedings before treating the proposed test as settled law.

Legal check date

Sources checked on 3 November 2026; subsequent changes are not reflected automatically.