Spain Fights Back - CEDRO sues Google

Spanish RRO and PDLN member CEDRO has launched a legal action against Google’s use of Spanish publisher content. But this action is based on clause 32.2 the current Spanish law, not the new EU act – which has not yet been implemented in Spain. The Spanish law – which saw a furious response from Google in 2015 and the withdrawal of Google News from Spain – required aggregators to pay compensation for certain types of use via a copyright management organisation, which gives CEDRO the right and duty to collect fees for such applications. In CEDRO’s view Google Discover meets the definition, and it points to the agreements it has in place with smaller aggregators as proof. The courts will decide the merits of the case. But the pressure on Google from publishers clearly won’t go away, and as implementation of the DSM legislation progresses we can expect more cases in other EU countries.