European Commission: Google to pay a licensing fee to publishers?

The European Commission is holding a public consultation on offering publishers ‘neighbouring rights’, as a result of which Google would have to pay publishers a licensing fee when running snippets from articles. In response, Google might close down its Google News service from Europe, instead of paying the additional tax. Many publishers are against the regulations, as they would create ‘new barriers between us and our readers, new barriers to entry for news publishers such as ourselves.‘