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The debate on regulating search biases by dominant search engines has been heating up both on the domestic and international level. This debate was approached from various of aspects, including competition laws, political rights and the protection of small and medium-sized companies. However, the debate was mostly focused on the competitive aspects of search biases.

This paper first summarizes the characteristics of the Internet search markets and the major competitive concerns related with the Internet search engines, and then reviews the policies and legal discussion on the search neutrality principle, including ex ante regulations on search engines and ex post competition law enforcement against them.

This paper also analyzes competition law enforcement activities by major competition law authorities around the world, such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the European Commission, and the Korea Fair Trade Commission, against dominant search engines like Google and Naver. In the light of the foregoing discussion and analysis, this paper sets forth several suggestions with respect to the regulatory policies and competition law enforcement against them.

Critics argue that dominant search engines are likely to harm its rivals within the search market. However, we need to distinguish meritorious rivalry from unlawful monopolization. Undistinguished and impatient interventions against search engines often function as a punishment that deter pro-competitive and welfare-enhancing innovations, and subsequently weakens dynamic competition in the market.

The evaluation of the dominant search engines and its market dominance contemplates many other considerations, including the fact that the consumers can instantaneously switch to one search engine from another at zero cost. In conclusion, there is insufficient evidence to judge whether the dominant search engines' practices are anticompetitive or procompetitive.