Britannica and Merriam-Webster Sue Perplexity AI for Copyright Infringement
Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster sued Perplexity AI in federal court in New York on September 10, 2025, alleging the company's answer engine copies their copyrighted content without permission and presents it as AI-generated summaries, sometimes attributing false information to their brands and diverting website traffic that generates revenue.
What happened
Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI on September 10, 2025, in federal court in New York, accusing the company of copyright infringement and trademark violation.
The plaintiffs allege that Perplexity's answer engine copies their content without permission and presents it in AI-generated summaries, sometimes attributing hallucinated responses to the plaintiffs' brands.
Reported impact
Britannica alleges the practice diverts traffic from its websites that would otherwise generate subscription and advertising revenue, as users rely on Perplexity's summaries instead of visiting Britannica directly.
Britannica CEO Jorge Cauz stated: 'Perplexity claims to be the world's first answer engine but those answers it provides many times are Britannica's answers.'
Index analysis
The lawsuit follows Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement in 2025 regarding claims it used millions of pirated books to train its Claude chatbot, signaling that publishers can secure large compensation through litigation.
Perplexity faces similar copyright claims from News Corp, Dow Jones, and The Wall Street Journal regarding unauthorized use of their articles in its search engine.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.