The EU’s highest court has taken up a question the AI industry has been watching for years: does training a generative AI model on copyrighted content violate European copyright law?
According to a Bird & Bird analysis of the proceedings, the Court of Justice of the European Union held its first oral hearing on generative AI and copyright on March 10, 2026. The case is *Like Company v. Google Ireland Limited* (C-250/25), reportedly brought by a Hungarian digital media company alleging that Google’s Gemini AI used its copyrighted publications for training without authorization.
According to Bird & Bird’s account, the hearing examined four core legal questions: whether LLM training constitutes a reproduction right violation; whether the EU’s text and data mining exception applies; whether AI training involves a communication to the public; and how authorship and attribution apply to AI-generated outputs.
No ruling has been issued. A CJEU preliminary ruling typically takes 12 to 24 months or more from the hearing date, meaning a decision is unlikely before late 2027 at the earliest. For AI companies operating in Europe, that timeline means continued legal uncertainty for training practices.
One important framing note: this is coverage of a recently published legal analysis, not a development from this week. The hearing itself occurred on March 10. The story is relevant now because it’s the first time the CJEU has heard oral argument on generative AI copyright, a milestone regardless of timing.
This case sits alongside the Mistral AI CEO’s concurrent proposal for a European revenue levy to resolve the training data standoff, two very different responses to the same unresolved question.