I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2054 

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

to collectively negotiate with dominant online platforms regarding the 

terms on which their content may be distributed. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 3, 2019 

Mr. CICILLINE (for himself, Mr. COLLINS of Georgia, and Mr. DESAULNIER) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the 

Judiciary 

A BILL 

To provide a temporary safe harbor for the publishers of 

online content to collectively negotiate with dominant 

online platforms regarding the terms on which their 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 2019’’. 

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

8 (a) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 


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•HR 2054 IH

1 (1) The term ‘‘news content creator’’ means— 

2 (A) any print or digital news organization 

3 that— 

4 (i) has a dedicated professional edi5 torial staff that creates and distributes 

6 original news and related content con7 cerning local, national, or international 

8 matters of public interest on at least a 

9 weekly basis; and 

10 (ii) is commercially marketed through 

11 subscriptions, advertising, or sponsorship; 

12 and 

13 (B) provides original news and related con14 tent, with the editorial content consisting of not 

15 less than 25 percent current news and related 

16 content. 

17 (2) The term ‘‘Online Content Distributor’’ 

18 means any entity that— 

19 (A) operates a website or other online serv20 ice that displays, distributes, or directs users to 

21 news articles, works of journalism, or other con22 tent on the internet that is generated by third23 party news content creators; and 


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•HR 2054 IH

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

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

3 its websites or online services worldwide. 

4 (3) The term ‘‘antitrust laws’’ has the meaning 

5 given such term in subsection (a) of the first section 

6 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12), and includes— 

7 (A) section 5 of the Federal Trade Com8 mission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the extent that 

9 such section applies to unfair methods of com10 petition; and 

11 (B) any State law, rule, or regulation that 

12 prohibits or penalizes the conduct described in, 

13 or is otherwise inconsistent with, subsection (b) 

14 of this section. 

15 (4) The term ‘‘negotiation period’’ means the 

16 period of time beginning on the date this Act goes 

17 into effect and ending 48 months later. 

18 (b) LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.—A news content cre19 ator shall not be held liable under the antitrust laws for 

20 engaging in negotiations with other news content creators 

21 during the negotiation period to collectively withhold con22 tent from, or negotiate with, an Online Content Dis23 tributor regarding the terms on which the news content 

24 creators’ news content may be distributed by the Online 

25 Content Distributor, if— 


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1 (1) the negotiations with the Online Content 

2 Distributor— 

3 (A) are not limited to price and are non4 discriminatory as to similarly situated news 

5 content creators, and directly relate to the qual6 ity, accuracy, attribution or branding, and 

7 interoperability of news; and 

8 (B) pertain to terms that would be avail9 able to all news content creators; 

10 (2) the coordination among the news content 

11 creators is directly related to and reasonably nec12 essary for negotiations with an Online Content Dis13 tributor that are otherwise consistent with this Act; 

14 and 

15 (3) the negotiations do not involve any person 

16 that is not a news content creator or an Online Con17 tent Distributor. 

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

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

20 or supersede the operation of the antitrust laws. 

Æ 


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