Summary
Google News halted its operations in Spain following the introduction of a copyright law requiring news aggregators to pay licensing fees to publishers for using their content. The regulation, effective from 2015, grants the Spanish Government authority to penalize websites for linking to pirated content. Media companies advocating for the law now seek government intervention to prevent Google’s exit, as many relied on Google News for traffic. Similar regulatory challenges have emerged in France and Germany, but the Spanish law is more restrictive, prohibiting publishers from freely licensing their content. The development highlights ongoing tensions between technology companies and European regulators.
Google closed its Google News service in Spain in response to a new copyright law that made it mandatory for news aggregators, including Google, Yahoo and similar services, to pay licensing fees to news publishers for using their stories or snippets.
The Spanish Copyright Law
The regulation, which came into effect in 2015, also empowers the Spanish Government to penalise websites that direct links to pirated content with fines of up to $750,000. The law, pushed through by media companies affiliated with AEDE (Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies), an anti-Google lobbying group, contains an unusual provision: it forbids news publishers from licensing their content for free, even if the publisher itself wishes to do so.
Reaction from Publishers and AEDE
Following Google’s announcement that it would shut down Google News in Spain, media companies associated with AEDE requested the Spanish Government to intervene and prevent the closure. Google News was available in more than 35 languages at the time, covering approximately 70 international editions. Given that the service had been directing significant traffic to Spanish publishers, those publishers faced the prospect of reduced readership and were likely to turn to paid Google AdWords campaigns to compensate for traffic losses. From Google’s perspective, however, Spain represents a comparatively small market.
European Context
Spain’s decision was not without precedent in Europe. In February 2013, Google was required to establish a $75millions fund to support digital publishing innovation in France; in exchange, French publishers agreed not to charge Google for using snippets in its news service. Germany passed a comparable measure, often referred to as the “Google Tax,” granting publishers a one-year exclusive right to profit from their content while permitting them to opt in to Google’s index without triggering a licensing fee obligation. The Spanish law went further by removing the publishers’ option to grant free licences, making a commercial arrangement between Google and Spanish publishers legally unavoidable.
Disclaimer
This article is for general information and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult a qualified attorney before acting on any matter discussed here.