EU digital economy chief wants Google to pay up under new copyright law

Günther Oettinger, the man who will become the European Union’s digital economy and society commissioner, may be considering taking the so-called “Google tax” law from his native Germany and applying it across the EU. Oettinger, who will report to digital single market commissioner Andrus Ansip, has been tasked with reforming European copyright law (a brief that was previously one for the internal markets department, rather than digital economy). He told Handelsblatt that he wants to introduce an EU-wide copyright law, to replace the current patchwork of national laws. Interestingly, he appeared to suggest that Google should be paying some kind of copyright fee that it isn’t currently paying.