BREAK THEM UP! US Federal Judge Declares Google Search a Monopoly in Historic Court Ruling.

A federal judge ruled on Monday that Google illegally maintained a monopoly in search, saying in the landmark case that the tech giant paid companies to make Google the default search engine on smartphones and other devices. The case has the potential to change how tech companies do business, as well as how their customers find answers to their online search queries. The trial, held last year, took 10 weeks and was years in the making.

“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in the decision. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”

Why is this so important?

The ruling comes as Big Tech is seeing renewed scrutiny from regulators both domestically and abroad. Apple was hit with an antitrust suit by the US Department of Justice and 16 state attorneys general earlier this year that accused the iPhone maker of having too tight of a control on its premium handset, preventing other companies from creating applications that could compete with its own.

Amazon, too, was hit with a lawsuit by the US Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general last year that alleged the online retail giant engages in exclusionary and anticompetitive behavior. And, per the EU’s Digital Markets Act, Apple had to allow third-party app stores to work with iPhone. Google itself has been embroiled in a number of lawsuits, including one involving data handling in its Chrome browser.

Google is currently the king of online search, with over 91% global market share, according to GlobalStats.