Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2019

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1700 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 3, 2019 Mr. KENNEDY (for himself and Ms. KLOBUCHAR) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 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. 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.—In this section: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:31 Jun 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1700.IS S1700 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1700 IS (1) ANTITRUST LAWS.—The term ‘‘antitrust 1 laws’’— 2 (A) has the meaning given the term in 3 subsection (a) of the first section of the Clayton 4 Act (15 U.S.C. 12); and 5 (B) includes— 6 (i) section 5 of the Federal Trade 7 Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the ex- 8 tent that section applies to unfair methods 9 of competition; and 10 (ii) any State law (including regula- 11 tions) that prohibits or penalizes the con- 12 duct described in, or is otherwise incon- 13 sistent with, subsection (b). 14 (2) NEWS CONTENT CREATOR.—The term 15 ‘‘news content creator’’ means— 16 (A) any print or digital news organization 17 that— 18 (i) has a dedicated professional edi- 19 torial staff that creates and distributes 20 original news and related content con- 21 cerning local, national, or international 22 matters of public interest on at least a 23 weekly basis; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:31 Jun 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1700.IS S1700 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1700 IS (ii) is commercially marketed through 1 subscriptions, advertising, or sponsorship; 2 and 3 (B) provides original news and related con- 4 tent, with the editorial content consisting of not 5 less than 25 percent current news and related 6 content. 7 (3) ONLINE CONTENT DISTRIBUTOR.—The 8 term ‘‘online content distributor’’ means any entity 9 that— 10 (A) operates a website or other online serv- 11 ice that displays, distributes, or directs users to 12 news articles, works of journalism, or other con- 13 tent on the internet that is generated by third- 14 party news content creators; and 15 (B) has not fewer than 1,000,000,000 16 monthly active users, in the aggregate, of all of 17 its websites or online services worldwide. 18 (b) LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.—A news content cre- 19 ator may not be held liable under the antitrust laws for 20 engaging in negotiations with any other news content cre- 21 ator during the 4-year period beginning on the date of en- 22 actment of this Act to collectively withhold content from, 23 or negotiate with, an online content distributor regarding 24 the terms on which the news content of the news content 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:31 Jun 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1700.IS S1700 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1700 IS creator may be distributed by the online content dis- 1 tributor, if— 2 (1) the negotiations with the online content dis- 3 tributor— 4 (A) are not limited to price; 5 (B) are nondiscriminatory as to similarly 6 situated news content creators; 7 (C) directly relate to the quality, accuracy, 8 attribution or branding, and interoperability of 9 news; and 10 (D) pertain to terms that would be avail- 11 able to all news content creators; 12 (2) the coordination between the news content 13 creators is directly related to and reasonably nec- 14 essary for negotiations with an online content dis- 15 tributor that are otherwise consistent with this Act; 16 and 17 (3) the negotiations do not involve any person 18 that is not a news content creator or an online con- 19 tent distributor. 20 (c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Except as provided in 21 this Act, this Act shall not be construed to modify, impair, 22 or supersede the operation of the antitrust laws. 23 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:31 Jun 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1700.IS S1700 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS