European Union: Budapest District Court referred questions to Court of Justice of the European Union in Like Company v Google Ireland Limited

On 3 April 2025, the Budapest District Court lodged a request for a preliminary ruling with the Court of Justice of the European Union in Like Company v Google Ireland Limited (Case C-250/25). The referring court submitted four questions for interpretation of Article 15(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/790 and Articles 2 and 3(2) of Directive 2001/29/EC. The questions asked, firstly, whether the display of text partially identical to press publisher web page content in the responses of a large language model (LLM)-based chatbot constitutes communication to the public, and whether it is relevant that such responses result from next-word prediction based on observed patterns. Secondly, whether the training of an LLM-based chatbot on the basis of pattern observation and matching constitutes reproduction. Thirdly, whether such reproduction falls within the text and data mining exception under Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/790. Fourthly, whether displaying part or all of a press publication in a chatbot response, where the user instruction matches or refers to that publication, constitutes reproduction on the part of the chatbot service provider.