Reddit prods judge to move Anthropic case back to state court

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A federal judge Tuesday questioned whether to remand to San Francisco Superior Court Reddit’s claims that artificial intelligence company Anthropic breached a contract and violated users’ agreements by training its AI chatbot Claude with users’ personal data.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson had tentatively ruled earlier this week on a motion to remand the case back to superior court. However after oral arguments Tuesday, she took the motion under submission and did not signal if the tentative ruling would be finalized.

Reddit attorney Richard Worcester told Thompson “it goes without saying” his client agreed with the tentative ruling to remand. He said Reddit’s breach of contract and unjust enrichment claims fall outside of the Copyright Act and must be heard in state court.

Worcester said Anthropic 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. The company did so without compensating Reddit. Worcester said the issue wasn’t necessarily that Anthropic had access and copied the material on Reddit’s platform, but rather the way Anthropic went about it.

“It’s the particular kind of copying that it is being done, it’s the scraping,” Worcester said.

The attorney also noted that Reddit is full of “good data” based on its structure of subreddits and practice of moving the most “helpful” comments the top of forum pages. Companies such as Google have entered partnerships with Reddit to obtain that “good data,” which is helpful in training AI products.

Worcester said Anthropic may be using data Reddit users previously deleted, which makes it more difficult for the company to abide by its own user agreement.

Anthropic attorney Ragesh Tangri said scraping was a protected act under copyright law. He said to remand the case back to state court, the plaintiffs 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.”

He said the breach of contract claim fell under the umbrella of copyright law, and Reddit didn’t want to argue its case in federal court “because they don’t own the copyright of the vast majority of content on Reddit.”

Anthropic removed the case to federal court in July 2025, saying Reddit’s copyright infringement claims warranted federal jurisdiction.

Thompson, a Joe Biden appointee, allowed Reddit a chance for rebuttal after saying the defense put up a “persuasive argument to the contrary of the court’s tentative ruling on the motion.”

During rebuttal Worcester said, “I don’t need to convince you that I am right, I just need to convince you that these claims are not all preempted.”

In its 26-page complaint, Reddit claims Anthropic has been scraping user data since 202, 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.

“Other giants in the AI space understand and respect Reddit’s rules,” Reddit said of its licensing practices.

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.

In its lawsuit, Reddit includes unjust enrichment claims, arguing that Anthropic is reaping “significant profit” from technology made possible by its content. Other claims include tortious interference, trespass to chattels, and unfair competition.

At the end of the hearing, Thompson took the motion under submission.

“You’ve given me quite a bit to think about,” she said. “I can’t promise you seven to 13 days for order, but I will make every effort.”