London (CNN Business) Google is changing the way it displays news stories produced by European publishers in France as new copyright rules go into effect.

Rather than paying publishers to display snippets of their news stories, the company will show only headlines from articles, Google's vice president of news Richard Gingras announced Wednesday. The company will only display previews and thumbnail images from news stories if publishers agree to provide them for free.

This move will disappoint publishers who had hoped for additional revenue as a result of new copyright law that goes into effect in France in October. The country is the first to implement European Union copyright rules passed earlier this year

Google GOOG Facebook FB When the European Parliament approved the changes, the expectation was that Google could be forced to pay publishers to use snippets of their content, a so-called "link tax." Proponents described the measures as empowering publishers to strike deals with companies likeand

But Google says that it doesn't pay for news content as a matter of policy. The company shut down Google News in Spain after a law passed in 2014 would have mandated such payments.

Read More