Google is closing its news service in Spain next week due to new legislation under which publishers can charge search engines for using their content. Google said the new law makes the Google News service unsustainable and that, "with real sadness", it will remove Spanish publishers from Google News and shut down its service in Spain on 16 December.

The new Spanish intellectual property law nicknamed "Google Tax." is going into effect Jan. 1.

"The new law requires publishers to charge Google News for showing even the smallest snippets of their content -- whether they want to charge or not," the company said.

Google claims the inclusion of material in its news service is directing more people to websites. The company also allows publishers to prevent material from being displayed in Google News, an option few websites choose because the service is an important traffic source to sell ads.

Publishers in countries from Germany and France to Spain have also pushed to pass new national copyright laws that force Google and other web aggregators to pay licensing fees when they publish snippets of their news articles.

Following a similar revision of German copyright laws last year, Google required publishers to give consent for summarizing content and most did.