Perplexity Faces Lawsuit by Japanese Media Groups Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun for Allegedly Copying and Storing Content Without Permission
Perplexity AI, backed by Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, is reportedly being sued by Japan’s Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun for allegedly copying and storing content without permission. The publishers seek USD 15 million each and want the articles deleted. Reports say the lawsuits follow similar action by Yomiuri, as Japanese media push back against AI firms using their content.
New Delhi, August 27: Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence search engine backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Nvidia Corporation, is reportedly facing a lawsuit from two of Japan’s media groups, Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun. The publishers have accused the startup of allegedly copying and storing their content without permission, joining a growing number of news organisations taking legal action against AI companies for using their material.
As per a report of Financial Times, Japanese media companies Nikkei, owner of the Financial Times, and Asahi Shimbun newspaper announced on Tuesday that they had jointly filed a lawsuit in Tokyo, Japan. The move adds them to a list of Western news organisations taking legal action against Perplexity, which delivers answers with sources and citations using large language models (LLMs) from platforms like OpenAI and Anthropic. Trump Media Partners With Crypto.com To Introduce Rewards System on Truth Social and Truth+ Platforms.
Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun are reportedly seeking USD 15 million each in damages and have asked Perplexity to delete the stored articles. The Japanese media groups allege that Perplexity "copied and stored article content from the servers of Nikkei and Asahi" without permission and ignored a "technical measure" meant to prevent such actions. They also claim that Perplexity’s responses have provided inaccurate information related to their newspapers’ articles, which as a result, "severely damages the credibility of newspaper companies."
As per reports, the lawsuits come after a similar action by another major Japanese newspaper, the Yomiuri, indicating that publishers in Japan are beginning to push back against AI companies. Perplexity is accused of allegedly drawing users and revenue away from news publishers by leveraging their content to provide answers on its chatbot, instead of compensating the publishers or directing readers to their websites. Spotify Direct Messaging Feature: Audio Streaming Platform Introducing DMs, Rolling Out Discovering Music, Podcasts and Audiobooks; Check Details.
Kensaku Fukui, an expert in copyright law at law firm Kotto Dori in Tokyo, reportedly said, "These are test cases." Fukui added that while Japan’s “copyright law is in some ways permissive for AI training for existing copyrighted works, there are some restrictions.”
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 27, 2025 12:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).