Over the past several years, a regulatory crusade spanning both the Biden and Trump administrations has hyperscrutinized Google's search engine and business practices in an attempt to label the company a monopoly and justify unprecedented government intervention into Alphabet's most widely used product. Now Congress is weighing in. A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the Securing Enforcement of Americans' Right to Competition at Home (SEARCH) Act, which would prohibit dominant search engines from using certain default distribution agreements or favoring their own services over competitors in search results.
Companies that fail to follow these directives will be subject to antitrust enforcement, possibly including civil penalties and court-ordered behavior changes. With the SEARCH Act, legislators will be following in the steps of Europe. On Thursday, the European Union fined Google $1 billion for "illegally undercutting competition through its dominance as a search engine," per The New York Times.
