The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that in a decision likely to intensify transatlantic trade tensions, European Union regulators on Thursday hit Google with a $1-billion (U.S.) fine for illegally undercutting competition through its dominance as a search engine. A New York Times dispatch to The Globe says U.S. President Donald Trump has previously threatened to retaliate against the EU for what he views as the unfair targeting of American technology companies. The Google decision was announced as he was weighing a new batch of tariffs on the EU and other major trading partners. In explaining Thursday's fine of 890 million euros, regulators in Brussels said Google had used its position as the world's largest search engine to unfairly boost its services in areas such as shopping, travel, games and language translation. Google displayed its own services more prominently at the top of search results, while relegating competing services farther down the page, according to regulators. The European Commission, which conducted the investigation, also concluded that the tech giant used unfair restrictions on its Google Play app store to prevent app developers from communicating with users, among other complaints.