A judge has recently ruled that Google has illegally monopolized the online searching market. Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote, “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” This is a landmark decision and is arguably the biggest tech antitrust ruling of the century. While this ruling was strictly about liability, the court looks forward to remedies it will impose. These remedies will likely reshape big tech as we know it.

The judge has considered multiple remedies. Some could be judicially-created rules that would require Google to share data and change their practices. However, it could also mean a court-ordered split up of the company. This would be incredibly rare and send shock waves throughout the industry. Historically, the only other modern anti-trust mandated breakups were either rejected on appeal or was when AT&T was split into seven regionals companies, around 40 years ago. If Google is forced to split up, it’s not clear how Judge Mehta would split the corporation up being that their main revenue comes from ads on search results, and they really only have one product. With how rare and difficult a split would be, the likely scenario is that the remedy will target Google with new rules to follow. Overall, no matter how Judge Mehta rules regarding the most appropriate remedy, any change to the big tech giant that is Google will likely have a massive impact in the industry.