Overview

• Asahi Shimbun and Nikkei jointly filed a complaint in the Tokyo District Court seeking ¥4.4 billion in damages and an injunction against Perplexity.
• They allege the AI service reproduced and stored their content without permission from at least around June 2024, infringing reproduction and public-transmission rights.
• The filing cites use of articles distributed via Yahoo News and paywalled Nikkei content, which the papers say were copied and retained without authorization.
• The newspapers also claim Perplexity’s generated answers displayed numerous false facts while listing them as sources, damaging their credibility.
• Yomiuri Shimbun filed a separate suit on August 7 seeking about ¥2.1 billion, as publishers escalate efforts to curb AI services that summarize web reporting.