II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 673 

To provide a temporary safe harbor for publishers of online content to 

collectively negotiate with dominant online platforms regarding the terms 

on which content may be distributed. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 10, 2021 

Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. PAUL, and 

Mr. WHITEHOUSE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice 

and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To provide a temporary safe harbor for publishers of online 

content to collectively negotiate with dominant online 

platforms regarding the terms on which content may 

be distributed. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Journalism Competi5 tion and Preservation Act of 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. SAFE HARBOR FOR CERTAIN COLLECTIVE NEGO7 TIATIONS. 

8 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 


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1 (1) ANTITRUST LAWS.—The term ‘‘antitrust 

2 laws’’— 

3 (A) has the meaning given the term in 

4 subsection (a) of the first section of the Clayton 

5 Act (15 U.S.C. 12); and 

6 (B) includes— 

7 (i) section 5 of the Federal Trade 

8 Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the ex9 tent that section applies to unfair methods 

10 of competition; and 

11 (ii) any State law (including regula12 tions) that prohibits or penalizes the con13 duct described in, or is otherwise incon14 sistent with, subsection (b). 

15 (2) NEWS CONTENT CREATOR.—The term 

16 ‘‘news content creator’’ means— 

17 (A) any print, broadcast, or digital news 

18 organization that— 

19 (i) has a dedicated professional edi20 torial staff that creates and distributes 

21 original news and related content con22 cerning local, national, or international 

23 matters of public interest on at least a 

24 weekly basis; and 


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1 (ii) is marketed through subscriptions, 

2 advertising, or sponsorship; and 

3 (B)(i) provides original news and related 

4 content with the editorial content consisting of 

5 not less than 25 percent current news and re6 lated content; or 

7 (ii) broadcasts original news and related 

8 content pursuant to a license granted by the 

9 Federal Communications Commission under 

10 title III of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

11 U.S.C. 301 et seq.). 

12 (3) ONLINE CONTENT DISTRIBUTOR.—The 

13 term ‘‘online content distributor’’ means any entity 

14 that— 

15 (A) operates a website or other online serv16 ice that displays, distributes, or directs users to 

17 news articles, works of journalism, or other con18 tent on the internet that is generated by third19 party news content creators; and 

20 (B) has not fewer than 1,000,000,000 

21 monthly active users, in the aggregate, of all of 

22 its websites or online services worldwide. 

23 (b) LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.—A news content cre24 ator may not be held liable under the antitrust laws for 

25 engaging in negotiations with any other news content creVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:09 Apr 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S673.IS S673

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1 ator during the 4-year period beginning on the date of en2 actment of this Act to collectively withhold content from, 

3 or negotiate with, an online content distributor regarding 

4 the terms on which the news content of the news content 

5 creator may be distributed by the online content dis6 tributor, if— 

7 (1) the negotiations with the online content dis8 tributor— 

9 (A) are not limited to price; 

10 (B) are nondiscriminatory as to similarly 

11 situated news content creators; 

12 (C) directly relate to the quality, accuracy, 

13 attribution or branding, and interoperability of 

14 news; and 

15 (D) pertain to terms that would be avail16 able to all news content creators; 

17 (2) the coordination between the news content 

18 creators is directly related to and reasonably nec19 essary for negotiations with an online content dis20 tributor that are otherwise consistent with this Act; 

21 and 

22 (3) the negotiations do not involve any person 

23 that is not a news content creator or an online con24 tent distributor. 


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1 (c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Except as provided in 

2 this Act, this Act shall not be construed to modify, impair, 

3 or supersede the operation of the antitrust laws. 

Æ 


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