Google To Close Its Google News Service In Spain On December 16 In Response To New Law

Google is saying adios to Google News in Spain, after announcing it will close the service down in the country on December 16 in response to the impact of a new law.

The company said that incoming legislation in the European country will force publishers to charge Google if and when it carries snippets of their stories in the news service.

That’s not unlike the situation in Germany, where publishers have long argued that Google should compensate them for using excerpts of their stories in the service.

However, while German publishers have grudgingly accepted that Google News is valuable enough to their business to excuse compensation, Spain has gone ahead and inshrined the requirement to pay in its legal system.

Read more: “This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not,”