Reddit has won a significant legal victory against Anthropic. Judge Harold Kahn of the San Francisco County Superior Court rejected Anthropic's legal challenge on September 17, clearing the way for the main proceedings – at least for three of the five claims Reddit has brought against the AI developer.
The essentials
- Three claims survive: breach of contract, interference with contract, and violation of California's unfair competition law
- Two claims (unjust enrichment, trespass to chattels) were dismissed, but Reddit can revise and refile them by October 16
- Reddit alleges Anthropic accessed its platform over 100,000 times automatically – even after Reddit's CEO publicly called out the behavior
- The lawsuit was filed in June 2025; Reddit argues Anthropic trained Claude on personal user data without consent
The core issue: scraping without license
Reddit accused Anthropic of using automated bots to scrape millions of user comments to train Claude. The key detail: Reddit had already struck licensing deals with companies including Google and OpenAI in 2024 that included protections like users' right to delete their content. Anthropic allegedly bypassed this route entirely.
Judge Kahn rejected a central argument from Anthropic. The company had claimed Reddit's terms of service constitute an unenforceable "browsewrap" agreement – a contract users never actively consent to. The judge disagreed: the fact that Anthropic continued scraping after Reddit's public call-out showed the company knew exactly what it was doing.
"AI companies don't get a free pass to ignore the law. AI companies cannot scrape data without a license in violation of basic contract law, user privacy commitments and fair business practices."
A Reddit spokesperson made this statement in response to the ruling.
What happens next
| Claim | Status | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Breach of contract | ✓ Allowed | Main proceedings |
| Interference with contract | ✓ Allowed | Main proceedings |
| Unfair competition (California) | ✓ Allowed | Main proceedings |
| Unjust enrichment | ✗ Dismissed | Revision by Oct. 16 |
| Trespass to chattels | ✗ Dismissed | Revision by Oct. 16 |
The judge found the two dismissed claims too vaguely worded. Reddit gets a chance to reframe them more precisely and resubmit.
What this means
This ruling is a turning point in AI training litigation. For the first time, a U.S. court has confirmed that claims of unlawful scraping by AI firms are substantial enough to survive dismissal. That sets precedent – not just for further cases against Anthropic, but for other platforms and AI developers.
For German companies, the signal is unmistakable: if you use training data, you need a legal basis. Licensing deals like those Reddit struck with Google and OpenAI are becoming the standard, not the exception. Companies betting on scraping without contracts should expect lawsuits. The case also shows that "browsewrap" agreements aren't automatically invalid in AI training contexts if the operator can prove the other side acted knowingly.
Sources
Editorially owned by Ideal Syka. Sources and method: Newsroom & method. Tips and corrections: ai@i6eal.de.
