Like Company alleges Gemini infringed its press publisher rights; Google disputes the claim

The Hungarian publisher Like Company sued Google Ireland over alleged reuse of its articles through Bard and Gemini. The Hungarian court referred questions about that dispute to the EU court. Szpunar's November 3, 2026 opinion describes the parties' positions and the questions referred. Opinion (opens in a new tab)

He proposes treating two training questions as inadmissible because nothing supports the assumption that Like Company's articles were used in training and because training is not an online use under the publishers' right. He distinguishes training from real-time retrieval. For retrieval and answers, he says reproduction occurs if a chatbot accesses a publication unlawfully or if its protected expression is recognizable in an answer to the point that a reader can skip the original. Those acts are attributed to the provider only if they are inherent to its business model or it failed to take appropriate measures. The publishers' right does not protect facts as such. He provisionally suggests the submitted example may not satisfy his test, subject to the Hungarian court's findings.

This is an advocate general's proposed approach, not a final judgment. The parties' positions are documented in the opinion; the dates of their underlying observations have not been established here. Court explanation (opens in a new tab)