The $ 2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit from Google will face increased scrutiny from EU regulators. Reuters He reports that the deal will face a large-scale antitrust investigation, which the European Commission will open next week. Regulators and consumer advocacy groups have shared fears about Google’s planned acquisition of Fitbit, in relation to the search giant that gains access to sensitive data such as physical activities, heart rates, sleep patterns and more.
Consumer groups across Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Brazil have called Google’s agreement with Fitbit a “test case” for regulators’ abilities to prevent data monopolies. Google has been trying to appease European regulators by offering not to use Fitbit’s health data to target ads, but the Financial times informs that this guarantee has not been sufficient. EU officials are reportedly demanding more concessions to ensure Fitbit data is open to outside developers, and they are also seeking assurances that Google will not use Fitbit data to improve its search engine.
The EU investigation will likely take an additional four months to delve into Google’s potential use of Fitbit data. Google announced its acquisition of Fitbit in November, and it could be a full year or more before the company can finalize it. Google also spent $ 40 million to acquire Fossil’s smartwatch technology last year in a further push to build wearable devices built into Android.
It appears that a full European investigation into Google’s Fitbit deal will come just days after most of the big tech companies in the US appeared in an antitrust panel of the House Judiciary Committee. CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook appeared yesterday at the trial, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in particular, faced a series of questions about the company’s search domain and its use of data to monitor potential competitors.
