Robert Kneschke v. LAION

This article was originally published in the Technology’s Legal Edge - A Global Technology Sector Blog, December 2025 and is reproduced with permission from the publisher.

The Higher Regional Court of Hamburg has issued a decision that sets out key principles regarding the lawful use of data mining and AI training.

In its judgment of 10 December 2025, the court rejected the appeal filed by photographer Robert Kneschke against the earlier ruling of the Hamburg Regional Court from 27 September 2024 (Ref.: 310 O 227/23). Kneschke had previously sought an injunction to prevent the non-profit organisation LAION e.V. from using one of his photographs for AI training, but his claim was dismissed at first instance. That initial decision drew significant attention as the first German ruling to examine the extent of the statutory opt-out for text and data mining in the context of AI model training.