Polish regulator delays ruling on Google publisher fees as second group files claim

Poland’s Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) has extended until December 26, 2026 its deadline for deciding how much Google should pay Polish press publishers for using their content in search results. The regulator said the case is complicated and needs further explanations from both sides and a full analysis of the evidence, according to a communique published on August 31 and reported by Wirtualne Media and the Polish Chamber of Press Publishers.

The request came from Repropol, a collecting society representing several hundred publishers, which asked UKE on June 26 to set a fee after mediation with Google collapsed in May. Under Poland’s amended copyright law, which implements the EU’s press publishers’ right, the regulator should rule within 60 days of a request, or within 30 days of receiving an expert opinion, with an absolute cap of six months. UKE is now using most of that window.

On the same day, a second organization, the Union of Digital Publishers Employers (ZPWC), filed its own request with UKE after its mediation with Google ran from May to July without agreement. ZPWC’s members include Agora, Wirtualna Polska, Ringier Axel Springer Polska, TVN Warner Bros. Discovery and Interia. An analysis by Swiss consultancy FehrAdvice, commissioned by the group, puts the value of journalistic content in Google’s Polish search results at roughly 121 million euros, or 514 million zloty, per year.

Why it matters

Poland is one of the few EU countries where a regulator, rather than a court or a private negotiation, can impose a price on Google for snippets and headlines. The outcome will set a benchmark for the Polish market and will be watched in other member states still struggling to enforce Article 15 of the Copyright Directive. Google has not disclosed what it currently pays Polish publishers, and any UKE decision can be appealed to court, a route that publishers say could stretch proceedings to three years.

What’s next

UKE may appoint an expert to value the content, which would restart the 30-day clock, so a ruling could land in the first weeks of 2027 rather than before Christmas. Negotiations began in January 2025, meaning publishers will have waited at least two years for a number. Meanwhile, a coalition of ten smaller online publishers is still negotiating with Google directly, and the company’s new Search Console switch letting sites opt out of AI Overviews gives all of them a fresh bargaining chip.