SEARCH Act of 2026

Increased Competition for Users: By prohibiting preferential treatment, payments for default status, and exclusive agreements, the bill seeks to prevent covered platforms from inhibiting competitors (Section 3).

Enhanced User Choice: The mandate for "choice screens" ensures that users can select their preferred search engine from a neutral list during device setup or browser installation (Section 8).

Easier Switching of Services: The bill requires platforms to provide permanent and easily accessible settings for users to switch their default search engines (Section 8).

Improved Data Access for Competitors: Qualified competitors will receive non-discriminatory access to search indexes, ranking signals, user-side data, and advertising data (Section 5).

Greater Transparency for Advertisers: Advertisers will gain access to query-level reports regarding cost-per-click and keyword triggers, and will be able to export campaign data in real time (Section 7).

Protection of Content Creators: The bill prohibits covered platforms from conditioning a publisher's ranking on the consent to use their content for separate services like training generative AI (Section 5).

High Financial Penalties for Corporations: Covered platforms found in violation of the Act could face civil penalties of up to 15 percent of their annual United States revenue (Section 9).

Financial Burdens on Employees: Employees required to undergo specific antitrust training who fail to do so can be held personally liable for civil penalties of up to 10 percent of their total annual compensation (Section 9).

Potential Costs for User Education: Covered platforms may be required to contribute to a public education fund, with amounts up to 0.05 percent of their annual United States revenue (Section 8).

Mandatory Costs for Data and Search Sharing: Covered platforms must license search results, ranking signals, and advertising inventory to competitors at "marginal cost" (Section 5 & Section 6).