Google News to close its Spanish news service

Google has announced it will shut down its Google News service in Spain on 16 December, before a new intellectual property law comes into effect in January.

The new regulation will allow Spanish publications to charge services like Google News if their content is shown on the site. The online search giant, however, has claimed that its search-based service does not generate any revenue.

"It's with real sadness that on 16 December we'll remove Spanish publishers from Google News, and close Google News in Spain," said Richard Gingras, head of Google News in a blog post on Wednesday.

"Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site)."

Gingras added that the company would not be able to sustain the law which would allow Spanish publishers to charge Google "for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications".

"The vast majority choose to be included for very good reason. Google News creates real value for these publications by driving people to their websites, which in turn helps generate advertising revenues," he said.

Spanish authorities have not specified how much the US firm would have to pay to publishers under what has been labeled "Google Tax".

Google News and similar services have come under scrutiny from newspaper publishers who argued they infringe on their copyright by creating an online selection of headlines.

Following Germany's decision to revised its copyright laws in 2013, which would have required Google to make payments, the firm began asking publishers for their consent to summarise their content.