Google will restart its news service in Spain early next year

Due to strict legislation regulating in 2014, online sharing of news links and excerpts, Google News decided to stop providing services in Spain. But now, as per the info, Spain is easing restrictions on link sharing, in response to a new law passed by the European Union’s capital, Brussels.

Meanwhile, Google announced that it will resume its news service in Spain early next year. The original law that prompted Google News to exit Spain required all news aggregators to pay collective fees. The law directly targets Google chose to shut down its news service in Spain in lieu of paying fees.

In 2019, the European Union passed a law called the European Copyright Directive. This law allows news publishers to charge for links or excerpts of their content.

Member nations had two years to update their legislation after this law was passed in the EU. This is exactly what Spain and other EU member states are doing now.

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The main reason Google News returned to Spain is that news aggregators can interact directly with publishers instead of paying a blanket fee for access to all online media outlets. Google’s Iberian VP, Fuencisla Clemares, said,

“the new copyright law allows Spanish media outlets — big and small — to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered and how they want to make money with that content.”

Last year Google announced that it would pay a license fee to publishers around the world for access to their content. And a few days ago, Google said it had begun discussions with hundreds of publishers across Europe where the law is now in effect.