Google makes Google News available again in Spain after eight years

Google has made Google News available again in Spain. The service was unavailable for eight years because the company refused to pay publishers to show news. Now it can negotiate with those publishers.

Google sets up the News service available to all Spanish users† Google News was no longer available there since 2014. In that year, the Spanish government passed a law requiring content aggregators to pay for republishing news or excerpts thereof. Google refused to pay and therefore made News unreachable in the country. The company did not consider it necessary to pay, because it did not make any money from Google News itself. At the time, the law and Google’s decision drew much criticism from publishers. They complained of losing many visitors.

Google started negotiating an agreement with publishers at the end of last year. That happened after a change of Spanish law. An amendment makes it possible for publishers to make agreements with aggregators about showing content and how those companies can earn money from it.

The agreement is part of a new European copyright directive. This gives publishers the right to negotiate about reusing content. Earlier this week, France already agreed to a similar plan.