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) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary 
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. 
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 ‘‘Journalism Competi-
tion and Preservation Act of 2021’’. 
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SEC. 2. SAFE HARBOR FOR CERTAIN COLLECTIVE NEGO-
TIATIONS. 
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) ANTITRUST
LAWS.—The term ‘‘antitrust 
laws’’— 
(A) has the meaning given the term in 
subsection (a) of the first section of the Clayton 
Act (15 U.S.C. 12); and 
(B) includes— 
(i) section 5 of the Federal Trade 
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the ex-
tent that section applies to unfair methods 
of competition; and 
(ii) any State law (including regula-
tions) that prohibits or penalizes the con-
duct described in, or is otherwise incon-
sistent with, subsection (b). 
(2) NEWS
CONTENT
CREATOR.—The term 
‘‘news content creator’’ means— 
(A) any print, broadcast, or digital news 
organization that— 
(i) has a dedicated professional edi-
torial staff that creates and distributes 
original news and related content con-
cerning local, national, or international 
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matters of public interest on at least a 
weekly basis; and 
(ii) is marketed through subscriptions, 
advertising, or sponsorship; and 
(B)(i) provides original news and related 
content, with the editorial content consisting of 
not less than 25 percent current news and re-
lated content; or 
(ii) broadcasts original news and related 
content pursuant to a license granted by the 
Federal Communications Commission under 
title III of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 301 et seq.). 
(3) 
ONLINE
CONTENT
DISTRIBUTOR.—The 
term ‘‘online content distributor’’ means any entity 
that— 
(A) operates a website or other online serv-
ice that displays, distributes, or directs users to 
news articles, works of journalism, or other con-
tent on the internet that is generated by third- 
party news content creators; and 
(B) has not fewer than 1,000,000,000 
monthly active users, in the aggregate, of all of 
its websites or online services worldwide. 
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(b) LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.—A news content cre-
ator may not be held liable under the antitrust laws for 
engaging in negotiations with any other news content cre-
ator during the 4-year period beginning on the date of en-
actment of this Act to collectively withhold content from, 
or negotiate with, an online content distributor regarding 
the terms on which the news content of the news content 
creator may be distributed by the online content dis-
tributor, if— 
(1) the negotiations with the online content dis-
tributor— 
(A) are not limited to price; 
(B) are nondiscriminatory as to similarly 
situated news content creators; 
(C) directly relate to the quality, accuracy, 
attribution or branding, and interoperability of 
news; and 
(D) pertain to terms that would be avail-
able to all news content creators; 
(2) the coordination between the news content 
creators is directly related to and reasonably nec-
essary for negotiations with an online content dis-
tributor that are otherwise consistent with this Act; 
and 
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(3) the negotiations do not involve any person 
that is not a news content creator or an online con-
tent distributor. 
(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Except as provided in 
this Act, this Act shall not be construed to modify, impair, 
or supersede the operation of the antitrust laws. 
Æ 
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