Senate Rules Committee advances bill to require digital platforms to pay or arbitrate payments to news providers despite constitutional concerns

Senate Committee on Rules on Monday adopted a key amendment to Senate Bill 686, a measure that would require certain large online platforms to either pay digital journalism providers, enter arbitration to set advertising-revenue shares, or donate to a newly created Oregon Civic Information Consortium.

The bill’s legal counsel told the committee that if challenged, courts would likely find the measure violates both federal and state constitutional provisions, including takings protections. "If challenged, the court would likely find that Senate Bill 686 and the dash-3 violates certain provisions of the federal and state constitutions," Christopher Allnat, Deputy Legislative Counsel, told the committee.

The dash-3 amendment replaces the introduced bill with several changes: it sets a mechanism for covered platforms to demonstrate worldwide monthly active users or to enter a final arbitration process; allocates 10% of payments to the Oregon Civic Information Consortium and 90% to…