In 30 seconds
In this June 2025 short, Matthew Berman reads excerpts from Reddit’s lawsuit accusing Anthropic of unauthorized automated access and use of Reddit content. He comments on the potential competitive effect of an AI assistant answering questions using information drawn from online communities. Anthropic disputes Reddit’s allegations. A federal court later returned the case to state court, where a procedural ruling allowed some claims to proceed and gave Reddit leave to amend others; neither ruling established liability.
- 1Reddit’s complaintBerman identifies several claims in Reddit’s June 2025 lawsuit. The complaint states allegations, not a verdict.
- 2Data and bot allegationsReddit alleges use of user data without consent and more than 100,000 subsequent bot hits after an assurance that Reddit was blocked. Anthropic disputes the claims.
- 3Potential traffic effectsBerman suggests that users receiving answers from an AI assistant might visit Reddit less. The clip does not measure that effect.
Takeaways
- Reddit’s June 2025 complaint asserts contract, unjust enrichment, trespass to chattels, interference and unfair competition claims against Anthropic.
- Reddit alleges that Anthropic used user content without permission and that bots continued to access its servers after a 2024 assurance; Anthropic disputes the claims.
- A March 2026 federal remand returned the case to state court on jurisdictional grounds, not as a final finding of liability.
- A September 2026 state-court pleading ruling allowed three claims to proceed and gave Reddit leave to amend two others; it did not decide whether the allegations are true.
- Berman’s concern that AI answers could divert traffic from Reddit is a potential business effect, not a finding in the lawsuit.
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The claims in Reddit’s lawsuit
Berman reads from Reddit’s complaint and comments on its description of Anthropic. The complaint sets out Reddit’s position rather than established findings.
Matthew Berman introduces Reddit’s June 2025 lawsuit against Anthropic and reads the claims listed in the [complaint](https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/reddit-vs-anthropic-pbc-complaint.pdf): breach of contract, unjust enrichment, trespass to chattels, interference with contract and unfair competition. He briefly describes trespass to chattels as interference with personal property; whether the legal elements are met is for the court to decide.
Berman reads the complaint’s sharp criticism of Anthropic’s public safety and honesty messaging and agrees that the company presents itself as safety-focused. Reddit’s characterization is advocacy by a party to the case, not a judicial determination. Reddit alleges that Anthropic intentionally trained models on Reddit users’ personal data without requesting consent; Anthropic has said it disputes Reddit’s claims.
Data, access and competition
He highlights Reddit’s allegations about personal data, bot access and deleted posts, then considers potential effects on traffic. Anthropic contests the allegations and subsequent rulings concern procedure.
Reddit further alleges that, after Anthropic said in July 2024 that it had blocked bots from accessing Reddit, its bots made more than 100,000 subsequent requests to Reddit servers. The complaint also alleges that Anthropic refused to agree to privacy provisions including removal of deleted posts. These are contested allegations; the number of alleged requests does not independently establish what each request accessed or how any content was used.
Berman argues that Reddit’s user-generated discussions are valuable and suggests that people who receive answers through Anthropic’s products might no longer visit Reddit. That is his concern about a possible competitive effect, not a measured outcome established in the clip. Later proceedings: on March 30, 2026, a [federal court returned the case to San Francisco Superior Court](https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/reddit-v-anthropic-remand-order.pdf), finding no basis for federal removal on the copyright-preemption arguments presented. The court addressed the allegations for jurisdictional purposes, not a final determination of liability. A [state-court docket entry](https://trellis.law/case/cgc25625892/reddit-inc-vs-anthropic-pbc) records that on September 18, 2026, the court overruled Anthropic’s pleading challenge to the contract, interference and unfair-competition claims, and sustained it with leave to amend as to unjust enrichment and trespass to chattels. Those procedural decisions do not establish that Reddit’s allegations are true; the case remained in litigation as of the latest proceedings cited here.
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