Canada’s largest news publishers sue Anthropic in Ontario over use of their articles to train Claude
Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press allege Anthropic used their content without a licence. The claims have not been tested in court.
Illustration · not a photoHow this story was checked
- ResearchedWith AI assistance · 2 sources
- AI source checkEach sentence matched to its source
- Editor approvalMayank Sahu · 20 Oct, 12:13
- Published20 Oct, 12:13
Verify this story
- 2 sources, 0 official · 1 with an archived copy · see sources
- Every fact has a label and a source number · fact ledger
- What we searched, read and could not verify · research note
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How this was made: researched, drafted and source-checked by AI (Claude, made by Anthropic), then published under the editor’s standing approval. A person did not read it line by line before it went live. AI policy
In short
A group of Canada’s largest news publishers, including Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press, has filed a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic in an Ontario court, alleging the company used their articles to develop Claude without a licence. The statement of claim is dated 6 October 2026; the allegations have not been tested in court.
The lawsuit
The publishers filed a statement of claim dated 6 October 2026 in an Ontario court, Global News (via MobileSyrup) and Toronto Life reported on 19 October.12 The plaintiffs include Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press.12
What the publishers allege
According to the reports, the claim alleges that Anthropic:12
- used the publishers’ articles to train and develop Claude without consent;
- did not obtain “a valid licence” from any of the news companies;
- got around paywalls and other protections to copy text from their websites.
The claim also says Anthropic has been “substantially and unjustly enriched” at the publishers’ expense, Toronto Life reported.2 These are allegations in a legal filing. They have not been proven.12
Anthropic’s side
Anthropic had not responded publicly when the reports were published.2 We will add its response when it gives one. In other copyright cases, AI developers have generally argued that training on publicly available text is lawful; how Canadian courts will treat that question is still open.
A related case
The same publishers, together with CBC, sued OpenAI in 2024. That case has not been settled.12 Neither report gives the damages sought in the new claim.12
Why it matters
Canada has no settled rule on whether training AI models on news content needs permission. The publishers have also asked the federal government to address the issue.1 Outcomes in these cases could shape licensing deals between AI companies and Canadian media.
Disclosure: Anawords uses Claude, made by Anthropic, as one of its research tools. Anthropic has no say in our coverage.
Fact ledger
How labels workQuestions readers ask
Who is suing Anthropic in Canada?
A group of publishers including Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press.
What do they claim?
That Anthropic used their articles to train Claude without a licence and got around paywalls. These are allegations that have not been tested in court.
Has Anthropic responded?
It had not responded publicly when the reports were published.