Google mulls pulling news-aggregation service from Europe

Bloomberg

Lawmakers in Europe are set to test how important Google thinks its news-aggregation service really is. The European Union is working towards finalising a controversial new copyright law. The rules give publishers rights to demand money from the Alphabet Inc unit, Facebook Inc and other web platforms, when small fragments of their articles show up in news search results, or are shared by users.
That prospect has led Google to consider pulling Google News from the continent as a response to the new law, according to Jennifer Bernal, Google public policy manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The internet giant has various options on the table and will analyse the final text before making any decisions, she said, adding that Google would withdraw its service reluctantly.
The EU was planning to finalise the rules early this week but that’s been postponed due to disagreement among member states about some items of the package. The delay further drags out the legislative process, which kicked off when the European Commission, the bloc’s executive, first proposed the rules in 2016.
“The proposal for the Copyright Directive is very complex,” said a representative from Romania, the current head of the European Council of the bloc’s 28 member states. “The Council needs more time to reflect in order to reach a solid position.”
Google has said it doesn’t make money from its news service so withdrawing it is unlikely to lead to a financial hit. But news results keep mobile users coming back to its search engine, where they often type in other queries that generate lucrative ad revenue. Google also competes against rival mobile news aggregation services from Apple Inc and Facebook.
The lawmakers are still hashing out how to define small excerpts of stories and whether individual words should be covered by the new rules, according to an EU official who asked not to be identified. Separately, the new copyright rules would also require Google and Facebook to actively prevent music, videos and other copyrighted content from appearing on their platforms if rights holders don’t grant them a license.
Despite the delay, the EU could still agree on the rules in the coming months, according to two EU officials. But should they fail to do so by spring when the European Parliament has elections, the process would be delayed until later this year.
As with many divisive issues concerning European regulation, it centers on the small print. When the commission first unveiled draft rules, it proposed letting publishers waive their rights to demand money from news aggregation services. But the European Parliament introduced a provision last year that raises concerns among some small publishers that they won’t be able to let Google distribute their content online for free.
It’s unclear what the impact of Google withdrawing its news service would be for publishers who rely on the search giant for traffic to their sites.