Source: Law360

On September 30, 2024, a Delaware federal court dismissed antitrust claims brought by tech startup ROSS Intelligence against Thomson Reuters. The case revolved around allegations that Thomson Reuters, which operates the Westlaw legal research platform, engaged in anticompetitive practices by restricting ROSS’s access to Westlaw’s proprietary legal data. ROSS, a legal AI company, had been developing an AI-driven legal research tool and claimed that Thomson Reuters’ refusal to grant access to this data hindered its ability to compete in the legal research market.

The court, however, ruled in favor of Thomson Reuters, rejecting ROSS’s antitrust counterclaims. The judge found that ROSS had not sufficiently proven that Thomson Reuters’ actions amounted to monopolistic behavior in violation of antitrust laws. The case highlights the complexity of antitrust claims in markets where access to proprietary data is critical for competition.

Thomson Reuters had originally filed a lawsuit against ROSS in 2020, accusing the startup of scraping Westlaw’s data without permission. The dismissal of ROSS’s antitrust claims does not affect the ongoing copyright infringement case, which is still being litigated. As the legal battle continues, this case underscores the challenges AI companies face when seeking access to proprietary data held by larger, established competitors.