Spain’s competition watchdog, the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), announced that it was investigating Google for potentially breaching competition rules by refusing to pay news publishers for the use of their content.
The investigation focused on Google’s decision to remove Spanish publishers from its news aggregation service, Google News, in 2014, following the introduction of a new copyright law that required news aggregators to pay a fee to publishers for using their content.
The CNMC’s investigation is still ongoing, but if it finds that Google has violated competition rules, it could impose fines or other sanctions.
Google announced its plan to launch its News Showcase product in Spain while lawmakers were pressuring the company to compensate news publishers for reusing their content. The News Showcase product serves as a licensing platform for Google to negotiate with publishers.
By participating in News Showcase, publishers gain increased visibility as Google features their content across multiple touchpoints. However, non-paying publishers risk having their content displayed less prominently in Google’s general internet search, given the company’s dominant position in the search and content discovery market.