Summary
Google News ceased its operations in Spain following the introduction of a new copyright law requiring news aggregators to pay licensing fees to all publishers. The regulation, effective from 2015, authorises significant penalties for websites linking to pirated content. The law has led to unintended consequences for Spanish publishers, who now seek government intervention to prevent Google News closure. While Google News continues to thrive in the US, similar regulatory challenges have arisen in France and Germany, but the Spanish law is notably stricter by prohibiting publishers from waiving fees voluntarily. The development highlights the complex interplay between copyright enforcement and digital news distribution.
Google News Closes in Spain
Google closed its Google News service in Spain in response to a new copyright law requiring news aggregators such as Google, Yahoo, and similar platforms to pay licensing fees to news publishers for the use of stories or snippets. The regulation, which was expected to come into effect in 2015, also conferred on the Spanish Government authority to penalise websites up to US$ 750,000 for directing links to pirated content.
Publishers Seek Government Intervention
Media companies affiliated with AEDE, the Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies, which had lobbied for the new law, subsequently asked the Spanish Government to intervene and prevent Google from withdrawing its news service. At the time of the closure, Google News was available in more than 35 languages across approximately 70 international editions. The service had generated substantial referral traffic to news publishers, and a number of those publishers were expected to turn to paid Google AdWords campaigns to compensate for the traffic they would lose following Google’s exit. For Google, Spain represented a comparatively small market, and the company concluded that operating under the new licensing obligation was not commercially viable.
European Precedents
The closure in Spain was not an isolated development in Europe. In France, in February 2013, Google had agreed to establish a US$ 75M fund to support digital publishing innovation. In lieu of this arrangement, French publishers agreed not to charge Google for using snippets in Google News. Germany had also enacted a “Google Tax” law, granting publishers a one-year exclusive right to profit from their content; however, the German regulation permitted publishers to opt in to Google’s index and thereby waive the licensing fee obligation.
The Spanish law adopted a significantly more restrictive approach. Unlike the German model, it prohibited news publishers from licensing their content to aggregators for free, even where the publishers themselves wished to do so. This provision removed the flexibility that had allowed commercial negotiation in other European jurisdictions and left no workable arrangement for Google to continue operating the service in Spain.
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.