PPC's Legal Issues

PPC (Pay per click) is the core business model of search engines. In this time, which is not only an information era but also a period when the network economy prospers, PPC has brought high profit for search service providers, as well as business opportunities and benefits for other operators. However, it has resulted in legal problems frequently, and seriously undermined the market competition order, damaged the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and other operators, and even harmed the public interest. PPC's service characteristics is similar to that of commercial advertising, hence it should be regulated as a kind of "advertising". However, in our country, since it has not officially defined yet, and relevant legal institutions lag or are imperfect, PPC has not been supervised, and it has been difficult to regulate legal problems it caused.Firstly, this paper outlined PPC's features, background, development status and legal issues it caused; then explored why PPC frequently causes legal problems, illustrated the harms brougnt by these legal issues, and elaborated the legal system for regulating PPC; after that this paper analyzed the legal problems caused by PPC from the perspective of Anti-unfair Competition Law and anti-monopoly law, respectively; finally, on basis of PPC regulatory experience of other countries and some domestic scholars' viewpoints, the author puts forward some thoughts and suggestions on regulation of PPC emphatically from the angle of competition law. It is hoped that PPC will be effective regulated, search service providers will balance impartiality and profitability, and the search service will develop healthily and orderly.