IP Law Daily, TECHNOLOGY/INTERNET NEWS: Reddit sues Perplexity AI, tech companies over scraping of user data, (Oct 23, 2025)

By Thomas Long, J.D.

Defendants allegedly circumvented technological control systems to access and gather Reddit content for use by Perplexity in “fueling” its AI “answer engine.”

Social media platform operator Reddit, Inc., has filed suit in a New York federal district court against artificial-intelligence-powered search-engine operator Perplexity AI, Inc., and three technology service providers for allegedly engaging in the automated extraction of Reddit content—known as “data scraping”—for use by Perplexity’s “answer engine.” Reddit asserts that the unlawful scraping of content posted by its users (known as “Redditors”) has caused it to sustain damages, including lost profits and business opportunities, reputational harm, and loss of user trust. The complaint asserts claims for violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and common-law unfair competition. Perplexity almost immediately turned to social media—including Reddit—to defend itself in the court of public opinion (Reddit, Inc. v. SerpApi LLC, No. 1:25-cv-08736-PAE (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 22, 2025)).

Data-scraping allegations. Perplexity markets itself as the provider of “the world’s first answer engine,” which enhances Internet search results by gathering insights from “top tier sources” via a large-language model (a type of AI system designed to generate human-like textual outputs). Perplexity allegedly has admitted that Reddit is one of those sources. According to Reddit’s complaint, “Perplexity can only run its ‘answer engine’ by wrongfully accessing and scraping Reddit content appearing in Google’s own search results from Google’s own search engine. Reddit alleges that Perplexity obtains Redditor-posted from three co-defendants.

Reddit characterizes defendants Defendants Oxylabs UAB, AWMProxy, and SerpApi LLCare as “data-scraping service providers who specialize in creating and selling tools designed to circumvent digital defenses and scrape others’ content.” According to the complaint, these defendants are, “respectively, a Lithuanian data scraper, a former Russian botnet, and a Texas company that publicly advertises its shady circumvention tactics.” These defendants’ tools allegedly evade Reddit’s own anti-scraping measures and circumvent Google’s controls, allowing them to scrape Reddit content directly from Google search engine results. Reddit colorfully analogizes them to “would-be bank robbers, who, knowing they cannot get into the bank vault, break into the armored truck carrying the cash instead.”

Perplexity is not spared Reddit’s ire in the complaint. It describes the AI company as “akin to a ‘North Korean hacker’ … [willing to] apparently do anything to get the Reddit data it desperately needs to fuel its ‘answer engine’—that is, anything other than enter into an agreement with Reddit directly, as some of its competitors have done.”

Reddit asserts that its rules do not permit unauthorized commercialization of Reddit content—including use for training AI models—“absent an express agreement with guardrails in place to ensure that Reddit and its users’ rights are protected.” Some of the largest AI companies, including OpenAI and Google, have entered into such agreements, the complaint states. In addition to its policies on data sharing, Reddit employs technological measures to prevent unauthorized data scraping. Earlier this year, Reddit filed suit against AI company Anthropic, PBC for allegedly bypassing these measures to scrape Reddit content over 100,000 times (Reddit, Inc. v. Anthropic, PBC, No. CGC-25-625892 (Cal. Super. filed Jun. 4, 2025)).

Unable to extract content directly from Reddit, SerpApi, Oxylabs, and AWMProxy allegedly scraped data from Google search results instead, by using such techniques as masking their identities and hiding their locations to circumvent security restrictions. The complaint asserts that during a two-week period in July 2025, these defendants accessed, without permission, almost three billion search results pages containing Reddit text, web addresses, images, and videos. Reddit alleges that it sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter informing the AI company of Reddit’s policy against allowing commercial use of its content without authorization. “But, rather than respect Reddit and its users’ rights, what Perplexity has done in response is simply come up with increasingly devious schemes to circumvent Reddit’s security systems and policies,” states the complaint. Perplexity allegedly increased its activity by several hundred percent after Reddit requested that it stop.

Alleged harm. According to Reddit, the defendants’ activities have harmed the social media giant by damaging Reddit’s reputation and diminishing Redditors’ trust in the platform. This, in turn, damages Reddit’s ability to operate as a business. In addition, the defendants are accused of “depriv[ing] Reddit of the ability to control (a) what entities have access to its data, (b) how that data is used, and (c) whether Reddit data is handled in a manner consistent with its Privacy Policy, Public Content Policy, and User Agreement.” For example, the defendants’ misconduct allegedly will discourage other AI companies from adhering to existing agreements regarding access to and commercial uses of Reddit content, and is interfering with Reddit’s ability to enter into new licensing agreements. Reddit also asserts that it has had to spend significant amounts of money on bolstering its data security and anti-data-scraping systems.

DMCA claims. The complaint contains three counts under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for: (1) circumvention of technological control measures in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)(A) against all defendants; (2) trafficking of technology, product, service, or device for use in circumventing technological measure controlling access in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2) against SerpApi and Oxylabs; and (3) trafficking of technology, product, service, or device for use in circumventing technological measure controlling access in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2) against SerpApi and Oxylabs.

Unfair competition; unjust enrichment; civil conspiracy. Reddit alleges that all defendants undertook their unlawful actions “in order to secure for themselves an undue competitive advantage, or to damage Reddit’s competitive position.” This misconduct violates the state common law of New York, the complaint asserts. Reddit also alleges that all defendants “have been unjustly enriched at Reddit’s expense, and equity and good conscience militate against Defendants retaining the benefits they have obtained.” Further, Reddit pleads that SerpApi and Perplexity AI have conspired to violate the DMCA “in order to gain access to Reddit data on a large-scale, unauthorized, and automated basis, including Reddit content and services and the content authored by Reddit users.”

Relief sought. Reddit requests injunctive relief to prevent the defendants from engaging in unlawful scraping of Reddit’s data from its website and systems, as well as from unlawfully scraping Reddit data from Google. It also seeks an injunction barring the defendants from using any Reddit data previously obtained through the circumvention of technological control measures, and from selling this data. Reddit also demands jury trial and seeks awards of actual, statutory, and other compensatory damages; disgorgement of the defendants’ ill-gotten gains; and interest, as well as attorney fees and costs.

Perplexity’s response. On the same day Reddit filed its complaint, Perplexity took the unusual step of posting a defense of its actions directly to Reddit users, on Reddit. Contending that it accessed Reddit’s data lawfully and vowing that “we won’t be extorted,” Perplexity asserts that, as an application-layer company, it does not train AI models on content. “What does Perplexity actually do with Reddit content?” Perplexity’s post asked. “We summarize Reddit discussions, and we cite Reddit threads in answers, just like people share links to posts here all the time.” Perplexity referred to Reddit content as “public data” and criticized Reddit’s decision to file the lawsuit as “the opposite of an open internet.”

The case is No. 1:25-cv-08736-PAE.

Judge: Engelmayer, P.

Attorneys: William Andrew Maher (Wollmuth, Maher & Deutsch, LLP) for Reddit, Inc.

Companies: Reddit, Inc.; SerpApi LLC; Oxylabs UAB; AWMProxy; Perplexity AI, Inc.

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