By Mashable | Created at 2026-09-19 16:33:53 | Updated at 2026-09-19 23:41:40
7 hours ago
Reddit's lawsuit accusing Anthropic of illegally scraping user comments to train its Claude chatbot has cleared another hurdle. A San Francisco County Superior Court judge has allowed three of the platform's five claims to proceed while trimming back two others.
In an order dated Sept. 17 and filed the following day, Judge Harold Kahn overruled Anthropic's demurrer, a legal challenge arguing that even if Reddit's allegations are true, they don't amount to a valid claim. The judge will allow three of Reddit's claims against Anthropic to move forward: breach of contract, interference with contract, and violation of California's unfair competition law. Two other claims, unjust enrichment and trespass to chattels, were tossed out, but the judge will give Reddit a chance to fix and refile them by Oct. 16.
The case originated from a complaint Reddit filed in June 2025, when the company accused Anthropic of using automated bots to access its platform's content without permission and training Claude on the personal data of Reddit users without their consent.
At the time, Reddit's chief legal officer Ben Lee said AI companies should not be allowed to scrape people's information and content without clear limitations on how that data can be used, according to the Associated Press. Reddit noted it had separately struck licensing deals in 2024 with companies including Google and OpenAI that it said would allow it to enforce protections such as users' right to delete their content.
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Kahn also rejected Anthropic's argument that Reddit's User Agreement was an unenforceable "browsewrap" agreement. The AI company tried to argue that Reddit's terms of service don't constitute a binding contract because users never explicitly click "I agree." The judge pointed to Reddit's allegations that Anthropic kept scraping the site more than 100,000 times even after Reddit's CEO publicly called out the behavior — evidence, he said, that Anthropic knew exactly what it was doing.
As stated earlier, Kahn dismissed Reddit's unjust enrichment and trespass claims, finding them too vague as written, but allowed the company to refile with more specificity.
A Reddit spokesperson said in a statement:
"This ruling sends a strong message – 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. As we look ahead to the next phase of this lawsuit, Reddit remains committed to holding unauthorized scrapers accountable and to protecting the trust of Reddit users."
Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
