Google News has returned to Spain. Seven years later, Spain had to go without Google News for a long time, but the service will soon be restored. The Mountain View company said that its news service, which was shut down in Spain seven years ago owing to intellectual property laws requiring it to pay the media for the use of its material, will resume in early 2022. Several local newspapers then teamed together to pressure the government to act, believing that the lack of Google News would negatively impact the press. “Due to local regulations, we were obliged to shut down Google News in Spain in 2014. We can now confirm that Google News will return shortly, “On its Spanish portion of its blog, the American behemoth stated. A ruling that comes only days after a legislative decree transposing the European directive on copyright and associated rights in the digital market into Spanish law was approved on Tuesday, November 2. Before resuming its news service in 2022, the American behemoth says it wants to engage with local media to develop agreements that would preserve their rights under newly enacted legislation. In the interim, the company’s flagship search engine will bring Google News Showcase to Spain, a feature that allows media partners to get compensated for hand-picked rich content.
