Published October 21, 2026 · AI News
Canada’s biggest news publishers are taking Anthropic, the company behind Claude, to court. Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press filed a lawsuit in Ontario on October 6, 2026, alleging that Anthropic used their journalism to build Claude without permission. The case became public this week.
What the publishers allege
According to the statement of claim, as reported by The Canadian Press, Anthropic:
- infringed the publishers’ copyright by using their articles to develop Claude;
- was “unjustly enriched” because it never obtained “a valid licence” from any of them;
- broke the news sites’ terms of service;
- got around technical measures meant to block copying;
- keeps scraping their sites, including when users ask Claude questions.
None of these claims has been proven in court. Anthropic had not responded to requests for comment when the suit was reported.
Not the first case in Canada
The same publishers, together with CBC/Radio-Canada, sued OpenAI over ChatGPT in 2024. That case has not been settled. The publishers have also asked Ottawa to set rules on how AI companies use copyrighted content, saying the national AI strategy doesn’t cover it.
What it means for Claude users
Nothing changes for now. Claude keeps working the same way in Canada, and lawsuits like this usually take years. The outcome matters, though: if Canadian courts side with publishers, AI companies may need to pay for news content, cut Canadian news from their answers, or both. For how Claude compares with ChatGPT today, see our ChatGPT vs Claude comparison.