On Wednesday, Alphabet reactivated Google News in Spain, eight years after it had to suspend the site due to a Spanish law requiring it and other news aggregators to pay publishers for using their news snippets.
Madrid enacted legislation last year incorporating the updated 2020 European Union copyright regulations, enabling media organizations to engage in direct negotiations with the internet giant.
The action caused Google to declare last year that Google News would reopen the following year.
According to a blog post by Fuencisla Clemares, vice president for Iberia, “Google News is returning to Spain today, on the worldwide 20th anniversary of Google News, and after an almost eight-year sabbatical.”
She said that the business intended to quickly introduce Google News Showcase, its platform for compensating news producers, in Spain.
The Google Maps platform is under investigation by Germany’s antitrust authorities for possible anti-competitive restrictions, along with parent firm Alphabet Inc.
According to Andreas Mundt, head of the Bundeskartellamt, “We have data that implies Google may be restricting the usage of its own map services in combination with third-party map services.”
He used as examples the embedding of Google Maps location data, the search bar, and Google Street View on non-Google maps.
He said the organization is looking into whether this “may allow Google to further expand its position of dominance over certain map services.”
