The Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering the use of sanctions to break up the tech giant Google after a court ruling determined that the company does indeed have a monopoly on internet search features.

As reported by Axios, the DOJ hinted at its next steps in a court filing on Tuesday, which said that “Google’s unlawful conduct persisted for over a decade and involved a number of self-reinforcing tactics … Unwinding that illegal behavior and achieving the goals of an effective antitrust remedy takes time.”

This development follows a ruling in August by Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who also serves on the controversial U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. His ruling marked the end of a lawsuit that had first been filed against Google in 2020, which alleged that the company had illegally abused its position of dominance in the search engine sector, primarily due to its contracts with the popular internet browsers Safari (owned by Apple) and Firefox (owned by Mozilla).

However, the biggest obstacle for such a breakup would be the process of determining how exactly the company should be split up. Google, which is the #1 most popular website in the world, also owns the video-sharing website YouTube, the #2 most popular site; both are owned by parent company Alphabet Inc.

The DOJ’s ruling noted that breaking up the company would be the “remedying” solution,” and as such, said that such a step “requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow.”

Google’s vice president of global affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland issued a statement claiming that such a breakup would harm consumers the most, saying that “the government seems to be pursuing a sweeping agenda that will impact numerous industries and products, with significant unintended consequences for consumers, businesses, and American competitiveness.”