AllegedThe record is a lawsuit, complaint or accusation that has not been decided.
Britannica and Merriam-Webster sue Perplexity over content scraping
Britannica and Merriam-Webster filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, alleging the company's search engine uses bots to scrape their copyrighted content without permission and diverts traffic that would otherwise generate subscription and advertising revenue for the publishers.
10 September 2025 Β· Perplexity AI Inc. Β· Intellectual property and appropriation
Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. and Merriam-Webster Inc. sued Perplexity AI Inc. on Wednesday, accusing the AI company of powering its search engine with 'massive copying' of their protected content without permission.
Perplexity uses a bot to crawl and scrape research websites to power its search engine, taking 'free rides' on the companies' investment to develop high-quality content.
Reported impact
Perplexity's practice is 'cannibalizing traffic' otherwise landing directly on the companies' pages, according to the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Britannica and Merriam-Webster rely on those now-diverted clicks for revenue including to sell subscriptions and advertising.