SEARCH Act of 2026

Key Points

• Dominant search companies could no longer pay phone makers, browsers, or app stores to be the automatic default search engine, ending the kind of multibillion-dollar default deals that have shaped the industry.
• New devices and browsers would have to show users a neutral choice screen for picking a default search engine, both when first set up and at least once a year after that.
• Large search platforms would have to give smaller, well-funded competitors access to their search index, ranking signals, and ad data at marginal cost through an API, updated weekly.
• Search companies would be banned from ranking their own products, like shopping or travel tools, above competitors just because they control the search engine.
• Companies that break these rules face civil penalties of up to 15 percent of their annual US revenue, enforced by the FTC, the Justice Department, or state attorneys general.