Korean Newspaper Association Reports Naver for Unauthorized AI News Training Data
The Korean Newspaper Association reported Naver to the South Korean competition regulator for allegedly using news content without authorization to train its HyperCLOVA language models and in its generative AI search service, reportedly violating copyright and fair trade laws.
What happened
The Korean Newspaper Association reported Naver to the Korea Fair Trade Commission on 24 April 2025, alleging that Naver used news content from media companies without authorization to train its large language models HyperCLOVA and HyperCLOVA X, and refused to disclose the relevant training data.
The Association alleged that Naver's generative AI search service improperly used news content through unauthorized copying, distorting the context of original articles, omitting important information, and failing to display or falsely displaying the source of news content.
Reported impact
The Association contended that Naver's conduct violated media companies' copyright and rights by using their core assetsโnews contentโwithout consent and without proper attribution.
Index analysis
The Association asserted that Naver's behaviour constituted abuse of its market-dominant position in the domestic search market and online news distribution market, as well as abuse of its superior bargaining position in contractual relationships with media companies.
The Association determined that Naver's actions violated Article 5 (prohibition of abuse of market-dominant position) and Article 45 (prohibition of unfair trade practices) of the Fair Trade Act.
Governance controls
Naver stated that since revising its terms and conditions in 2023, it has not used news content for AI training without the consent of media companies.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.