Big Tech Accountability For Broadband Act Introduced In House – Would Require USF Contributions From Big Tech

August 3, 2021 – Representative Jack Bergman (R-MI) has introduced the Big Tech Accountability for Broadband Act, which would require Big Tech companies to contribute to the universal service fund (USF).[1]

The four-page bill is short on details and is merely intended to give the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) legal authority to require online platforms to contribute to universal service.

The bill would require the FCC to promulgate regulations, within 180 days of the bill’s enactment, requiring “covered businesses” to contribute to the USF.[2] As part of the rulemaking, the FCC would determine the “fee structure to be assessed on covered businesses.”[3]

These covered businesses are the Big Tech companies that, in the words of Representative Bergman, “ha[ve] been leeching off of key federal connectivity programs which bring more users to their platforms each day.”

A covered business is defined in the legislation as a business offering an “online platform” which has more than 30 million monthly users in the U.S. or more than 300 million monthly worldwide users, and that had more than $10 billion in global revenue during the most recent tax year. Tax exempt 501(c) organizations are not included.

The term online platform is defined as “a website, online or mobile application, mobile operating system, digital assistant, or online service” that generally enables social media, facilitates an e-commerce marketplace, or enables search.

Additionally, the bill directs the FCC to consider creating a new rule prohibiting telecommunications carriers from recovering USF contributions from end users that are “considered by the [FCC] to be unserved or underserved with respect to broadband internet access service.”[4] Currently, Section 54.712 of the FCC’s rules allow companies that contribute to the USF to recover these fees from their end user customers.[5] The Big Tech Accountability for Broadband Act “would require the FCC to consider in its rulemaking a way to exempt telecommunications carrier customers from having to pay USF charges on their bills if the customer does not have access to broadband.”

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[1] Big Tech Accountability for Broadband Act, H.R.__, 117th Cong., 1st sess. (intr. Aug. 3, 2021), https://bergman.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bergman_big_tech_bill.pdf.

[2] Sec. 2(a)(1).

[3] Sec. 2(a)(2).

[4] Sec. 2(b).

[5] “Federal universal service contribution costs may be recovered through interstate telecommunications-related charges to end users. If a contributor chooses to recover its federal universal service contribution costs through a line item on a customer’s bill the amount of the federal universal service line-item charge may not exceed the interstate telecommunications portion of that customer's bill times the relevant contribution factor.” 47 C.F.R. §54.712(a).