Spain

[ES] CNMC closes competition proceedings against Google after accepting binding commitments to ensure transparency and fair remuneration for press publishers

IRIS 2026-1:1/10

Azahara Cañedo & Marta Rodriguez Castro

On 17 December 2025, the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (National Commission on Markets and Competition – CNMC) decided to terminate the proceedings opened against Google for alleged anti-competitive practices affecting Spanish press publishers and news agencies. The CNMC closed the case after considering that the commitments submitted by Google on 19 March 2025 address the competition concerns identified.

Google has undertaken to improve negotiations relating to Extended News Preview (ENP) agreements, which affect Google Search, Google News and Google Discover, and GNS agreements (which only affect Google News Showcase), by making them more transparent and developing them in a more structured manner. Among the most significant corrective measures is Google’s commitment to provide a detailed description of the methodology used to calculate the remuneration of press publishers and news agencies.

Google will also provide information on advertising revenues derived from the use of their content, the impression share attributable to the content of each press publisher and news agency, and the amount of additional remuneration derived from the exploitation of such content outside Spain but within the European Economic Area. Remuneration agreements will be reviewed annually and publishers will be able to request retroactive remuneration for the use of their content from 4 November 2021 (the date on which Article 129 bis of the Consolidated Text of the Intellectual Property Act entered into force). Google also committed not to retaliate against publishers (for example, by reducing the visibility of their content) during negotiation processes or if they decide to reject the agreements.

The proceedings were initiated in June 2021 following a complaint filed by the Centro Español de Derechos Reprográficos (Spanish Reprographic Rights Centre – CEDRO) against Google for abuse of a dominant position in the news aggregation and digital advertising markets and for alleged unfair competition. In its complaint, CEDRO argued that Google takes advantage of the dominant position of its Google Search, Google News, Google Discover and Google News Showcase services to impose unfair conditions on press publishers and news agencies for licensing the exploitation of their content protected by intellectual property rights.

The CNMC opened sanction proceedings against Google in March 2023. During the process, the Asociación de Medios de Información (Association of Information Media – AMI), the Atresmedia audiovisual group, the Asociación Española de Editoriales de Publicaciones Periódicas (Spanish Association of Periodical Publication Publishers – AEEPP) and the Asociación de Revistas de Información (Association of News Magazines – ARI) joined as interested parties. The case is now closed following the CNMC’s acceptance of the 14 commitments submitted by Google in March 2025, with a duration of five years and the possibility of a further extension, and applicable to all Spanish press publishers and news agencies rather than just the parties involved in the proceedings.