Reddit's lawsuit against Anthropic advances as court allows key claims

A San Francisco County Superior Court judge has allowed three of Reddit's five claims against Anthropic to proceed in its lawsuit, which alleges the AI company illegally scraped user comments to train its Claude chatbot. Judge Harold Kahn overruled Anthropic's demurrer, rejecting the company's argument that Reddit's allegations do not constitute a valid claim. The judge permitted claims of breach of contract, interference with contract, and violation of California's unfair competition law, while dismissing unjust enrichment and trespass to chattels. Reddit was given until October 16 to refile the latter two claims with more specificity. The case, filed in June 2025, centers on Anthropic's alleged unauthorized access to Reddit's platform. A Reddit spokesperson stated, 'AI companies don't get a free pass to ignore the law.' Anthropic did not immediately respond to the request for comment. Kahn rejected Anthropic's argument that Reddit's User Agreement was an unenforceable 'browsewrap' agreement, citing evidence that the company continued scraping content despite public criticism. Reddit had previously struck licensing deals in 2024 with Google and OpenAI, which it said would allow it to enforce user data protections. The court's decision marks a significant step forward in the legal battle over data scraping practices in AI development.