A newly revised federal bill designed to help news publishers negotiate deals with tech giants would create a baseball arbitration process to resolve disputes, but would not apply to the largest media companies, people familiar with the proposal said.
The bill amends an earlier proposal called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which would have allowed publishers to join forces to work with publishers who use their content without violating antitrust laws. Network platforms, including Meta Platforms Inc. (FB)’s Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG)’s Google, are negotiating compensation issues.
The new proposal includes terms requiring tech companies to negotiate with publishers. According to a draft proposal seen by The Wall Street Journal, the negotiation period would be up to six months before mandatory arbitration proceedings begin.
Under the new proposal, after 180 days, publishers can initiate “final offer” arbitration to reach an agreement. During this process, the arbitrator selects one party’s final offer. Final offer arbitration is primarily used for negotiations in baseball and is sometimes referred to as “baseball arbitration.”
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