I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1735 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 10, 2021 

Mr. CICILLINE (for himself, Mr. BUCK, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. RASKIN, Mrs. 

SPARTZ, Ms. SCANLON, Ms. WILD, Mr. STEUBE, and Mr. GAETZ) introduced the following bill; which was 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’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. SAFE HARBOR FOR CERTAIN COLLECTIVE NEGO2 TIATIONS. 

3 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

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

5 laws’’— 

6 (A) has the meaning given the term in 

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

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

9 (B) includes— 

10 (i) section 5 of the Federal Trade 

11 Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the ex12 tent that section applies to unfair methods 

13 of competition; and 

14 (ii) any State law (including regula15 tions) that prohibits or penalizes the con16 duct described in, or is otherwise incon17 sistent with, subsection (b). 

18 (2) NEWS CONTENT CREATOR.—The term 

19 ‘‘news content creator’’ means— 

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

21 organization that— 

22 (i) has a dedicated professional edi23 torial staff that creates and distributes 

24 original news and related content con25 cerning local, national, or international 


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1 matters of public interest on at least a 

2 weekly basis; and 

3 (ii) is marketed through subscriptions, 

4 advertising, or sponsorship; and 

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

6 content, with the editorial content consisting of 

7 not less than 25 percent current news and re8 lated content; or 

9 (ii) broadcasts original news and related 

10 content pursuant to a license granted by the 

11 Federal Communications Commission under 

12 title III of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

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

14 (3) ONLINE CONTENT DISTRIBUTOR.—The 

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

16 that— 

17 (A) operates a website or other online serv18 ice that displays, distributes, or directs users to 

19 news articles, works of journalism, or other con20 tent on the internet that is generated by third21 party news content creators; and 

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

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

24 its websites or online services worldwide. 


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1 (b) LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.—A news content cre2 ator may not be held liable under the antitrust laws for 

3 engaging in negotiations with any other news content cre4 ator during the 4-year period beginning on the date of en5 actment of this Act to collectively withhold content from, 

6 or negotiate with, an online content distributor regarding 

7 the terms on which the news content of the news content 

8 creator may be distributed by the online content dis9 tributor, if— 

10 (1) the negotiations with the online content dis11 tributor— 

12 (A) are not limited to price; 

13 (B) are nondiscriminatory as to similarly 

14 situated news content creators; 

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

16 attribution or branding, and interoperability of 

17 news; and 

18 (D) pertain to terms that would be avail19 able to all news content creators; 

20 (2) the coordination between the news content 

21 creators is directly related to and reasonably nec22 essary for negotiations with an online content dis23 tributor that are otherwise consistent with this Act; 

24 and 


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1 (3) the negotiations do not involve any person 

2 that is not a news content creator or an online con3 tent distributor. 

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

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

6 or supersede the operation of the antitrust laws. 

Æ 


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