You are right that search engines have made some advances in the courts in recent years, but the bases for their wins are thin and not the same in all countries

You are right that search engines have made some advances in the courts in recent years, but the bases for their wins are thin and not the same in all countries. Barring legal action a site can block Google's known IPs entirely, forcing a search engine to either give up or use subterfuges that are probably not practical for a large public company to use. If a site really really wants to block a particular engine run by a for-profit company, or make it impractical (either legally or technically) they can.