The Department of Justice has officially blocked the impending AT&T (T  ) and Time Warner (TWX  ) merger after determining it would negatively impact consumers in the form of higher bills.

"This merger would greatly harm American consumers. It would mean higher monthly television bills and fewer of the new, emerging innovative options that consumers are beginning to enjoy," said Makan Delrahim, the head of the Justice Department's antitrust division.

"Absent an adequate remedy that would fully prevent the harms this merger would cause, the only appropriate action for the Department of Justice is to seek an injunction from a federal judge blocking the entire transaction," he added.

Seems like déjà vu for AT&T, which relinquished control of the Bell Operating Companies in 1982 in light of excessive monopolistic practices.

The $108 billion deal, which would have been one of the largest mergers in American history, was set into motion more than a year ago and involved a vertical merger between companies operating at different levels of a specific industry. In this case, AT&T represents the media-distribution business, while Time Warner works mainly to produce original content for viewers.

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The primary and perhaps more obvious reason for such a breakup is its perpetuation of potentially anticompetitive practices, namely higher prices for consumers and domination of an already highly competitive industry. More specifically, with the diversification, AT&T could increases prices for rivals to distribute the content of companies like HBO and Time Warner, which would inorganically stunt innovation in this field.

Another more speculative reason is grounded in political controversy and is linked to Donald Trump. Trump has been outspoken about his criticisms of CNN, a Time Warner-owned news company, and so this sudden deal blockage could very well be the result of President Trump's utilization of the department to act on his own vendettas. During his 2016 presidential campaign, President Trump commented that he thought the merger should be blocked.

While the deal may have been damaging in the short term to other market competitors, it would have given Time Warner a much-needed wider distribution platform, especially considering how newer innovations like SlingTV and Netflix (NFLX  ) have been consistently outperforming traditional TV and content networks.

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Many analysts also think the lawsuit could inadvertently impact tech behemoths like Facebook (FB  ) and Google (GOOGL  ) because AT&T could cite their immense power as a line of defense, arguing that it should be able to go ahead with the merger in order to be able to compete with such powerful companies.

AT&T shares climbed a bit after the news was announced, rising .5% in after-hours trading after closing up .4%. Time Warner shares tumbled a bit, falling .4% in after-hours trading after closing the day at a 1.1% loss.

Investors will now be wary of placing bets on Time Warner, which needed this revival from AT&T in order to compete with other original content creators like Netflix. While AT&T seems to have benefitted from the publicity in the short term, the way the lawsuit plays out could either strengthen its position by showing that it was able to take the DOJ head on, or weaken it by undermining its position relative to other companies that had successful mergers under similar circumstances.