This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

For those who have a problem with the overarching power of Google, a federal judge on Monday ruled the popular search engine acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search.

The 277-page decision by Judge Amit P. Mehta of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is being called a landmark ruling that could force tech giants to change their business protocols.

"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," Mehta wrote, finding that Google violated the Sherman Act, a major antitrust law.

"This landmark decision holds Google accountable," said Jonathan Kanter, antitrust chief at the U.S. Department of Justice. "It paves the path for innovation for generations to come and protects access to information for all Americans."

"This is the most important antitrust case of the century, and it's the first of a big slate of cases to come down against Big Tech," Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a professor at Vanderbilt University's law school told the New York Times. "It's a huge turning point."

The DOJ and a group of American states joined forces against Google four years ago over its practice of paying companies including Apple and Samsung billions of dollars annually for the search engine to automatically handle inquiries on their browsers and phones.

The Verge reported: "Mehta rejected Google's arguments that its contracts with phone and browser makers like Apple were not exclusionary and therefore shouldn't qualify it for liability under the Sherman Act. 'The prospect of losing tens of billions in guaranteed revenue from Google – which presently come at little to no cost to Apple – disincentivizes Apple from launching its own search engine when it otherwise has built the capacity to do so,' he wrote."

The New York Times reported: "The ruling is a harsh verdict on the rise of giant technology companies that have used their roots in the internet to influence the way we shop, consume information and search online – and indicates a potential limit of Big Tech's power.

"It is likely to influence other government antitrust lawsuits against Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The last significant antitrust ruling against a tech company targeted Microsoft more than two decades ago. …

"The decision is a major blow to Google, which was built on its search engine and has become so closely associated with online search that its name has become a verb. The ruling could have major ramifications for Google's success, especially as the company spends heavily to compete in the race over artificial intelligence. Google faces another federal antitrust case over ad technology that is scheduled to go to trial next month."

In April, "Google agreed to destroy billions of data records to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of people who thought they were browsing privately," CNBC reported.