Google says it will shut down its Google News service in Spain following a row with the country’s government over a law that will require the Internet search company to pay news organisations for linked content.
The move appears to mark the first time globally that the tech giant will shutter the service and comes ahead of intellectual property laws - dubbed Google Tax - which are due to go in effect in Spain on January 1.
The Spanish government passed the copyright law in October which imposes fees for online content aggregators such as Google News in an effort to protect the country’s print media industry.
Google’s decision means that not only will there be no more News in Spain but there will be no Spanish news publisher content in any other Google News edition.
Google said in a statement on Thursday that its news product for Spain will stop linking content from Spanish publishers on Dec. 16.
The law allows publishers to claim up to €600,000 (£475,000) to websites for link to pirated material.
Google maintains it obeys all copyright laws while sending more people to websites highlighted in its News services.
The company also allows publishers to prevent material from being displayed in Google News, an option few websites choose because the service is an important traffic source to sell ads.
After Germany revised copyright laws last year in a way that could have required Google News to make royalty payments, Google required publishers to give consent for summarizing content and most did.
Google declared it an “incredibly sad day” in a blogpost on Thursday, but said the company could not afford to run the service under such heavy fines.
Richard Gingras, head of Google News, said: “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.
“As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable.”
