Overview
- CNN filed a 54-page complaint in federal court on May 28, 2026 seeking statutory damages and orders to stop Perplexity’s use of its content.
- The suit alleges Perplexity scraped and stored more than 17,000 CNN stories, images and videos and used that material to power and train its AI products.
- CNN says talks with Perplexity over a Comet Plus licensing deal in October–November 2025 collapsed, CNN blocked Perplexity’s crawlers and sent a December 10, 2025 cease‑and‑desist that the complaint says went unanswered.
- The complaint accuses Perplexity of misusing CNN trademarks by implying an affiliation and advertising access to CNN premium content through its Comet Plus product.
- Perplexity has publicly disputed the claims with a facts-versus-copyright defense while the case joins multiple publisher suits and licensing deals that could shape how courts and companies handle AI access to news.