I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4905 
To direct the Federal Communications Commission to promulgate regulations 
to collect regulatory fees from large technology platforms. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 3, 2021 
Mr. BERGMAN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To direct the Federal Communications Commission to pro-
mulgate regulations to collect regulatory fees from large 
technology platforms. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Big Tech Account-
ability for Broadband Act’’. 
SEC. 2. COLLECTION OF REGULATORY FEES FROM LARGE 
TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS. 
(a) REGULATIONS.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
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Commission shall, notwithstanding subsection (d) of 
section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 254), promulgate regulations to require cov-
ered businesses to contribute to the Federal uni-
versal service support mechanism under such sec-
tion. 
(2) FEE STRUCTURE.—Such regulations shall 
include a fee structure to be assessed on covered 
businesses. 
(b) CONSIDERATIONS.—In promulgating regulations 
under subsection (a), the Commission shall consider in-
cluding in such regulations a mechanism to prohibit a tele-
communications carrier from levying on a customer of 
such carrier charges relating to the required contributions 
of such carriers to Federal universal service support mech-
anism under section 254(d) of the Communications Act 
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 254), if such customer is considered 
by the Commission to be unserved or underserved with re-
spect to broadband internet access service. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 
(1) BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE.— 
The term ‘‘broadband internet access service’’ has 
the meaning of that term under section 8.1(b) of 
title 47, Code of Federal Regulations. 
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(2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 
means the Federal Communications Commission. 
(3) COVERED BUSINESS.—The term ‘‘covered 
business’’— 
(A) means a business offering an online 
platform which— 
(i) in any month during the most re-
cently completed 12-month period— 
(I) more than 30,000,000 users 
in the United States accessed, without 
regard to the means by which the 
users accessed the service; or 
(II) 
more 
than 
300,000,000 
users worldwide accessed, without re-
gard to the means by which the users 
accessed the service; and 
(ii) during the most recently com-
pleted taxable year, had more than 
$10,000,000,000 in global revenue; and 
(B) does not include an organization de-
scribed in section 501(c) of the Internal Rev-
enue Code of 1986 that is exempt from taxation 
under section 501(a) of such Code. 
(4) ONLINE
PLATFORM.—The term ‘‘online 
platform’’ means a website, online or mobile applica-
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tion, mobile operating system, digital assistant, or 
online service that is designed primarily to— 
(A) enable a user to generate content that 
can be viewed by other users on the platform or 
to interact with other content on the platform; 
(B) facilitate the offering, sale, purchase, 
payment, or shipping of products or services, 
including software applications, between and 
among consumers or businesses not controlled 
by the platform operator; or 
(C) enable user searches or queries that 
access or display a large volume of information. 
Æ 
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