The SEARCH Act is a bipartisan United States Senate bill introduced on July 17, 2026 by Senators Eric Schmitt (R-MO) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), aimed at search-market competition (Source: schmitt.senate.gov).
Key provisions
Per the sponsors' announcement, the bill would bar payments for search-default placement and require covered platforms to share their indexes and query data with qualified competitors at marginal cost (Source: schmitt.senate.gov).
Reactions
Scholars at the International Center for Law & Economics criticized the bill on July 22, 2026 as importing the approach of the EU Digital Markets Act — and, in their view, its mistakes (Source: truthonthemarket.com).
Relationships
- related: Digital Markets Act (EU) — the EU regime critics compare it to.
- related: United States v. Google (Search) — the antitrust case addressing the same default-placement conduct.
- related: Google DeepMind — principal covered platform.