New study shows Spain’s “Google tax” has been a disaster for publishers

A study commissioned by Spanish publishers has found that a new intellectual property law passed in Spain last year, which charges news aggregators like Google for showing snippets and linking to news stories, has done substantial damage to the Spanish news industry.

In the short term, the study found, the law will cost publishers €10 million, or about $10.9 million, which would fall disproportionately on smaller publishers. Consumers would experience a smaller variety of content, and the law "impedes the ability of innovation to enter the market."

The study concludes that there's no "theoretical or empirical justification" for the fee. The full study (PDF) is available for download; it's in Spanish with an English-language executive summary.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments