Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2019

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 con- tent may be distributed. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Journalism Competi- 4 tion and Preservation Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. SAFE HARBOR FOR CERTAIN COLLECTIVE NEGO- 6 TIATIONS. 7 (a) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:32 Apr 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2054.IH H2054 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 2054 IH (1) The term ‘‘news content creator’’ means— 1 (A) any print or digital news organization 2 that— 3 (i) has a dedicated professional edi- 4 torial staff that creates and distributes 5 original news and related content con- 6 cerning local, national, or international 7 matters of public interest on at least a 8 weekly basis; and 9 (ii) is commercially marketed through 10 subscriptions, advertising, or sponsorship; 11 and 12 (B) provides original news and related con- 13 tent, with the editorial content consisting of not 14 less than 25 percent current news and related 15 content. 16 (2) The term ‘‘Online Content Distributor’’ 17 means any entity that— 18 (A) operates a website or other online serv- 19 ice that displays, distributes, or directs users to 20 news articles, works of journalism, or other con- 21 tent on the internet that is generated by third- 22 party news content creators; and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:32 Apr 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2054.IH H2054 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 2054 IH (B) has not fewer than 1,000,000,000 1 monthly active users, in the aggregate, of all of 2 its websites or online services worldwide. 3 (3) The term ‘‘antitrust laws’’ has the meaning 4 given such term in subsection (a) of the first section 5 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12), and includes— 6 (A) section 5 of the Federal Trade Com- 7 mission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the extent that 8 such section applies to unfair methods of com- 9 petition; and 10 (B) any State law, rule, or regulation that 11 prohibits or penalizes the conduct described in, 12 or is otherwise inconsistent with, subsection (b) 13 of this section. 14 (4) The term ‘‘negotiation period’’ means the 15 period of time beginning on the date this Act goes 16 into effect and ending 48 months later. 17 (b) LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.—A news content cre- 18 ator shall not be held liable under the antitrust laws for 19 engaging in negotiations with other news content creators 20 during the negotiation period to collectively withhold con- 21 tent from, or negotiate with, an Online Content Dis- 22 tributor regarding the terms on which the news content 23 creators’ news content may be distributed by the Online 24 Content Distributor, if— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:32 Apr 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2054.IH H2054 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 2054 IH (1) the negotiations with the Online Content 1 Distributor— 2 (A) are not limited to price and are non- 3 discriminatory as to similarly situated news 4 content creators, and directly relate to the qual- 5 ity, accuracy, attribution or branding, and 6 interoperability of news; and 7 (B) pertain to terms that would be avail- 8 able to all news content creators; 9 (2) the coordination among the news content 10 creators is directly related to and reasonably nec- 11 essary for negotiations with an Online Content Dis- 12 tributor that are otherwise consistent with this Act; 13 and 14 (3) the negotiations do not involve any person 15 that is not a news content creator or an Online Con- 16 tent Distributor. 17 (c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Except as provided in 18 this Act, this Act shall not be construed to modify, impair, 19 or supersede the operation of the antitrust laws. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:32 Apr 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2054.IH H2054 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS