Spain has adopted a European Union copyright directive that enables third-party on-line information platforms to barter instantly with content material suppliers, the federal government stated on Tuesday, setting the stage for Alphabet’s Google News to return to the nation.

Google News, which hyperlinks to third-party content material, closed in Spain in late 2014 in response to laws that pressured it to pay a collective licensing price to republish headlines or snippets of reports.

The EU laws, which should be adopted by all member states, requires platforms reminiscent of Google, Facebook and others to share income with publishers however it additionally removes the collective price and permits them to achieve particular person or group agreements with publishers.

Google stated it wished to carry its information providers again to Spain however would intently analyse the legislation earlier than making any agency dedication.

“Based on the initial information… conditions look promising for the potential launch of Google News in Spain. However, we will need to see the final law before making any formal announcements,” a spokesperson stated in an e mail.

Spain’s Culture Ministry stated the brand new legislation introduced nationwide copyright laws into step with the digital setting and would assist artists and creators to obtain honest remuneration for his or her work.

Arsenio Escolar, chairman of the CLABE publishers affiliation, which teams round 1,000 information shops together with main digital manufacturers reminiscent of El Espanol and Eldiario.es, stated he was happy with the brand new laws.

“We are satisfied because media publishers have regained the reins of the management of our rights, hijacked a few years ago by a law that we at CLABE have always considered unjust and harmful,” he stated in an e mail to associates.

Reuters reported in February that some publishers represented by the AMI media affiliation, which represents primarily the previous guard of conventional media, had been in favour of sustaining the previous system.

AMI declined to touch upon Tuesday.

© Thomson Reuters 2021