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SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A federal judge on Monday let social media giant Reddit go back to state court for its case accusing artificial intelligence company Anthropic of breaching a contract and violating users’ agreements by training its AI chatbot Claude with users’ personal data.
“The court finds that Anthropic’s alleged violations go beyond merely copying Reddit’s content without permission. Anthropic allegedly misappropriated Reddit’s content and data for its own use, in violation of contractual rights under Reddit’s User Agreement, which are distinct from the rights granted by copyright law,” U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson wrote in her ruling remanding the case.
Reddit sued Anthropic last June in San Francisco Superior Court, claiming the AI company violated Reddit’s user agreement and terms of service because bots scraped Reddit users’ material and downloaded it to use to train its AI products, without compensating Reddit.
Anthropic removed the case to federal court in July 2025, saying Reddit’s copyright infringement claims were preempted by the Copyright Act and warranted federal jurisdiction.
In a hearing over Reddit’s motion to remand, Reddit argued that its breach of contract and unjust enrichment claims fall outside of the federal act and must be heard in state court.
In contrast, Anthropic claimed that scraping was a protected act under federal copyright law, and to remand the case back to state court, Reddit would need to convince the judge of “an extra element that changes the nature of the rights protected, so it is qualitatively different than the rights protected by copyright law.”
In her 12-page order, Thompson rejected Anthropic’s arguments, finding that each of Reddit’s claims contains the necessary “extra elements” that warrant sending the case back to state court.
“Each claim arises from violations of contractual restrictions on the method and purpose of access, technical trespass and server impairment, interference with privacy covenants owed to users, and affirmative misrepresentations made by Anthropic,” the Joe Biden appointee wrote.
Addressing Reddit’s claims of breach of contract, Thompson found that the companies are “contractually bound” by Reddit’s User Agreement, which is enough to satisfy the “extra element” requirement.
“Reddit’s breach of contract claim rests on Anthropic’s methods of access, restricted purposes and deceptive conduct on Reddit’s platform, which are explicitly set forth in the User Agreement, and therefore provides ‘extra elements’ that transform the action from one arising under the ambit of the Copyright Act to one sounding in contract,” she said.
The judge also found extra elements in Reddit’s unjust enrichment claim because it relies on reports of Anthropic reportedly “bypassing technical safeguards, violating contractual access restrictions, misrepresenting its compliance and exploiting Reddit’s platform without authorization and compensation” to train Claude, raking in billions in profit for Anthropic.
As for Reddit’s contract interference claim, Thompson wrote “Anthropic also intentionally disrupted Reddit’s contractual relationship with its users by failing to comply with Reddit’s privacy policy through scraping its content, bypassing its technical safeguards and training its AI models on user content without entering into a licensing agreement that would protect Reddit’s user privacy rights."
The judge also sided with Reddit on the “extra element” of their trespass to chattels and unfair competition claims.
The case will be returned to San Francisco Superior Court.
In a statement to Courthouse News, a spokesperson for Reddit said that the ruling affirms their position that the case is about trust, not copyright law.
“AI companies should not be immune to contract laws nor should they be allowed to evade user privacy rights. Every other industry has to operate within fair business practice laws, and AI companies should not be exempt at the public’s expense,” they said.
A representative for Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In its 26-page complaint, Reddit claims Anthropic has been scraping user data since as far back as 2021, while also refusing to enter into a licensing negotiation with it over the user data at issue.
Although tech companies’ use of such data to train AI models isn’t a new practice, Reddit sued Anthropic for not going through the channels it set up specifically to license its users’ content. By formally partnering with entities, Reddit said it can ensure tech companies abide by its licensing terms, which it claims better protect users’ interests and privacy.
In February 2024, Google cut a deal with Reddit to the tune of $60 million per year to license its users’ content to the Alphabet company for AI training data.
In May 2024, OpenAI entered into a similar partnership with Reddit for user data to train its AI.
Reddit is seeking a jury trial for punitive and compensatory damages, as well as a court order prohibiting Anthropic from using any Reddit data or content for training its products going forward.
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