The Legal Character Of P4P And The Civil Liability Of Search Engine Service Providers

The Zexi Wei case happened in 2016 triggers people's doubts on the pay for performance(“P4P”)service and the lack of regulatory measures to the Search Engine Providers.The legal circle has always had disputes with regards to the legal nature of both the P4 P and the Search Engine Provider.There are also conflicts in the legal practices.P4 P belongs to advertising in its nature.Therefore,as the advertising producers,the Search Engine Providers shall be regulated by the advertising Law system and take the respective civil law responsibilities.For the sake of protecting the legitimate rights of the general network users and the competition between the enterprise perspective,the thesis makes it clear that the operation of P4 P by the Search Engine Providers shall comply with “Advertising Law”,“Consumer Protection Law”,“Anti-unfairCompetition Law” and “The Interim Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Internet Advertising” in order to provide remedies to the legitimate rights.In addition,the limit civil responsibilities of the Search Engine Providers will benefit the orderly development,it is also in line with the internal requirements of the legal system in market economy.The structure and content of the thesis is as follows.The first chapter is Background and Issue.From the Zexi Wei case,it raised the issue regarding the nature of P4 P and the scope of the civil responsibilities of the Service Engine Providers.The second chapter talks about the internet P4 P and the Search Engine Providers.It first starts with a summary of the theory opinions and the case studies.Then from the Advertising Law perspective,it provides with an analysis that the P4 P belongs to advertising and the Search Engine Providers are advertising producers.The third Chapter describes the current situation of the regulatory measures of the internet P4 P.From the angle of regulatory system including “Advertising Law”,“Consumer Protection Law”,“Anti-unfair Competition Law” and “The Interim Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Internet Advertising”,it analyzes the legal responsibilities of Search Engine Providers and the scope of such responsibilities.The fourth Chapter discusses the civil law responsibilities that Baidu shall take in the Zexi Wei case.If the generalinternet user or competitor sues Baidu in the civil court,what kind of civil law responsibilities may Baidu take? Last but not least,it provides an analysis regarding the reasonableness of civil law responsibly for the Search Engine Provides from the perspective of Cost and Benefit Maximization in the economy arena.