Google Gemini may violate the rights of press publishers by retrieving articles published on the internet and reusing their content to answer users. The assessment was presented this Tuesday (3) by Advocate General Maciej Szpunar, of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in the first case on generative artificial intelligence analyzed by the court.
The opinion is part of a dispute between Google and the Hungarian company Like Company, responsible for several news portals. The publisher accuses the company of using its articles without authorization both in the training of AI models and in the responses generated by Gemini.
According to Szpunar, the violation may occur when the chatbot circumvents paywalls or other technical protections to access publications. There may also be infringement when the response recognizably reproduces the original expression of an article, sparing the user from consulting the source.
The advocate general stressed, however, that publishers' rights protect the form of expression of the news, not the facts reported. Thus, presenting factual information about an event does not, by itself, constitute an infringement.
The opinion also considers the possibility of holding the chatbot provider liable when these practices are part of its business model or when effective measures are not adopted to avoid them.
AI training receives a different assessment
Szpunar's position on the training of artificial intelligence models was more favorable to Google. The advocate general stated that the use of protected materials to train language models is, as a rule, permitted by the European text and data mining exception.
He recommended that the CJEU not examine the two questions concerning Gemini's training in the case, considering them hypothetical. According to the opinion, there is no evidence that Like Company articles were used at that stage.
In a statement to Reuters, Google defended the importance of legal exceptions for the development of artificial intelligence in Europe. The company said that Gemini learns linguistic patterns to produce original responses, rather than reproducing content, and that it offers mechanisms for publishers to restrict the use of their materials.
The European Publishers Council, in turn, defended the distinction between allowing search engines to index news and authorizing AI systems to offer responses that replace original journalistic content.
The opinion does not represent a final decision nor does it establish that Google has committed an infringement. The conclusions of advocates general are not binding on the CJEU judges, who must still issue the judgment. The date of the decision was not announced.
