Referral C-250/25 (Like Company, 3 Apr 2025)

1. Must Article 15(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 [on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC], and Article 3(2) of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, be interpreted as meaning that the display, in the responses of an LLM-based chatbot, of a text partially identical to the content of web pages of press publishers, where the length of that text is such that it is already protected under Article 15 of Directive 2019/790, constitutes an instance of communication to the public? If the answer to that question is in the affirmative, does the fact that [the responses in question are] the result of a process in which the chatbot merely predicts the next word on the basis of observed patterns have any relevance?

2. Must Article 15(1) of Directive 2019/790 and Article 2 of Directive 2001/29 be interpreted as meaning that the process of training an LLM-based chatbot constitutes an instance of reproduction, where that LLM is built on the basis of the observation and matching of patterns, making it possible for the model to learn to recognise linguistic patterns?

3. If the answer to the second question referred is in the affirmative, does such reproduction of lawfully accessible works fall within the exception provided for in Article 4 of Directive 2019/790, which ensures free use for the purposes of text and data mining?

4. Must Article 15(1) of Directive 2019/790 and Article 2 of Directive 2001/29 be interpreted as meaning that, where a user gives an LLM-based chatbot an instruction which matches the text contained in a press publication, or which refers to that text, and the chatbot then generates its response based on the instruction given by the user, the fact that, in that response, part or all of the content of a press publication is displayed constitutes an instance of reproduction on the part of the chatbot service provider?