Following a dispute over intellectual property rights between Google and German publishers, the Web giant will no longer include snippets of articles from those publishers in search results.

Starting Oct. 9, pages associated with certain media groups—namely Axel Springer, one of the largest digital publishers in Europe—will appear only with a headline and direct link, according to the Financial Times(Opens in a new window).

Affected sites include bild.de, bunte.de, and hoerzu.de, all of which are represented by an umbrella group known as VG Media. Other German publishers not ensnared in the fight, like Der Spiegel(Opens in a new window), will continue to have the usual blurbs and thumbnail images accompany their search results.

“We work hard to help news publishers gain readers and generate new revenue online,” a Google spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. “In addition, they are free to choose whether their content—short snippets of text and thumbnail images—appears in Google’s products.”

At issue is an update to Germany’s Federal Copyright law, which allows publishers to seek payment from firms like Google for including anything more than a link and headline in their results – referred to as the “Google link tax” in the press. Google has pushed back on paying the sites for this content, arguing that inclusion in search results and on Google News means increased traffic and, ultimately, higher ad revenues.

The VG Media publishers, however, have stood their ground, prompting Google’s elimination of snippets altogether. “The action we are taking is similar to steps taken by other providers,” Google said today.

In response, VG Media accused(Opens in a new window) Google of blackmail.

Google has fought this battle throughout Europe, including Belgium and France.