On Wednesday, Alphabet reactivated Google News in Spain, eight years after shutting it down due to a Spanish law requiring the firm and other articles aggregators to pay publishers for using excerpts of their news.
Last year, Madrid enacted European Union copyright laws, which will be revised in 2020, allowing media outlets to bargain directly with the digital behemoth.
The action spurred Google to declare last year that it will reopen Google News the following year.
"Today, on the worldwide 20th anniversary of Google News, and after an almost eight-year sabbatical, Google News returns to Spain," stated Fuencisla Clemares, vice president for Iberia, in a blog post.
She also stated that Google News Showcase, its vehicle for compensating news producers, will be launched in Spain as soon as feasible.
Meanwhile, the French antitrust watchdog said on Tuesday that it had approved several undertakings made by Alphabet's Google over a copyright law aimed at compensating news publishers for online material use.
The regulator also stated that a EUR-500 million (approximately Rs. 4,120 crores) sentence issued on Google last year was now final, as the US web giant had discontinued its appeal. Last year, Google paid the fee.
The verdicts terminate the authority's inquiry into Google, which has agreed to hold negotiations with news organizations and other publishers about paying for the usage of their content.
