European Parliament Adopts Resolution on Copyright and Generative AI, March 2026

On 10 March 2026, the European Parliament adopted Resolution P10_TA(2026)0066 on copyright and generative artificial intelligence — opportunities and challenges, under procedure 2025/2058(INI). The resolution is a non-legislative act adopted by plenary in Strasbourg. It does not create binding law directly, but calls on the European Commission to propose legislative measures to clarify the copyright treatment of generative AI training and output activities across the EU.

The resolution's operative provisions rest on several existing instruments. Paragraph 2 calls for an additional legal instrument to clarify licensing rules for generative AI and to address potential infringements of current copyright law. Paragraph 3 recalls that any exception to authors' exclusive rights must satisfy the three-step test under Article 5(5) of Directive 2001/29/EC (the InfoSoc Directive) and must exclude pirated and infringing copies from "lawful access." Paragraph 10 requests that the Commission create standardised machine-readable tools, managed by a trusted intermediary, enabling rights holders to exclude their works from AI training, and assigns EUIPO responsibility for managing and listing those exclusions. Paragraph 9 calls on the Commission to facilitate voluntary collective licensing agreements on a sector-by-sector basis to establish a functioning licensing market.

The resolution affects three categories of market participant. Generative AI developers operating in the EU must currently treat all training on copyright-protected content as presumptively requiring authorisation or a valid exception; the Parliament's call for an additional legal instrument signals that the current text-and-data mining exception under Article 4 of Directive 2019/790/EU (the DSM Directive) is considered insufficient for the full scope of GenAI training. Rights holders — including publishers, news media, journalists, and individual creators — gain an explicit parliamentary statement that the Commission must provide mechanisms to exclude content from training and must ensure that use of protected content for inferencing and retrieval-augmented generation also requires express consent under paragraph 6. Operators of very large online platforms and search engines face potential obligations under paragraphs 7 and 8, which call for enforcement of the European Media Freedom Act and the Digital Markets Act to prevent GenAI systems from diverting traffic and revenue from press and news media.

The resolution is not binding on the Commission. No legislative proposal had been tabled as of the date of this publication. Paragraph 4 preserves research and cultural heritage exceptions under Article 3 of the DSM Directive, provided that non-commercial innovation and cultural heritage institutions obtain adequate authorisations. The General-Purpose AI Code of Practice — published by the Commission on 10 July 2025 and operative from 2 August 2025 — addresses training data transparency for general-purpose AI models under Article 53 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (EU AI Act), but that code does not resolve the copyright licensing question the Parliament raises in this resolution.

Our firm advises AI developers, rights holders, and digital platforms on EU copyright compliance and AI regulation, and we maintain a dedicated partner network across EU member states to support cross-border mandates. We are available to assist clients in assessing exposure under the existing DSM Directive and preparing for anticipated legislative changes. Contact us to discuss your situation. Relevant areas of work include: AI Act compliance, generative AI licensing, text and data mining exceptions, DSM Directive implementation, EU copyright law, platform regulation, and digital media law.

Source: European Parliament Resolution P10_TA(2026)0066, "Copyright and generative artificial intelligence — opportunities and challenges," adopted 10 March 2026, Strasbourg, procedure 2025/2058(INI); document A10-0019/2026; available at https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-10-2026-0066_EN.html (confirmed 24 March 2026).

The information provided is not legal, tax, investment, or accounting advice and should not be used as such. It is for discussion purposes only. Seek guidance from your own legal counsel and advisors on any matters. The views presented are those of the author and not any other individual or organization. Some parts of the text may be automatically generated. The author of this material makes no guarantees or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of the information.