Google News may shut down in EU over 'link tax'

Google could shut down Google News services in Europe if the European Union goes ahead with its plan to 'link tax' for reproducing news stories in the member countries. Link tax is intended to allow content  creators to charge search engines like Google for incorporating short pieces or even linking to their news articles.

EU Commission's proposal aims to make certain that artists, notably musicians, performers and script authors, as well as news publishers and journalists, are paid for their work when it is used by sharing platforms such as YouTube or Facebook, and news aggregators such as Google News.

After the vote, rapporteur Axel Voss (EPP, DE) said, "I am very glad that despite the very strong lobbying campaign by the internet giants, there is now a majority in the full house backing the need to protect the principle of fair pay for European creatives."

The new regulation will require medium to large online platforms to pay copyright holders for reproducing even small bits and pieces of text. The European Parliament's text also specifically requires that journalists themselves, and not just their publishing houses, benefit from remuneration stemming from this liability requirement.

This is what could hurt Google the most and it is concerned about the new regulation. In an interview with The Guardian, Google's vice-president of news, Richard Gingras, stated that while it's "not desirable to shut down services," the company "can't make a decision until we see the final language."

This isn't the first time Google has closed it services in Europe. Earlier in 2014, Google Spain closed its news services in the country because of the similar requirement.

Google news isn't a profit making venture of Google. According to Gingras, advertising isn't used on Google News, however the company encourages the users to spend more time on the site.