Fitbit Charge 2 heart rate and fitness bracelet.
Source: Amazon
Google’s $ 2.1 billion offer by fitness tracker maker Fitbit will face a large-scale antitrust investigation in the EU next week, people familiar with the matter said Thursday.
Google Alphabet this month offered not to use Fitbit’s health data to help it target ads in an attempt to address EU antitrust concerns. The opening of a large-scale investigation suggests that this is not enough.
The deal, announced last November, would see Google compete with market leader Apple and Samsung in the smartwatch and physical activity tracking market, along with others, including Huawei and Xiaomi.
The European Commission, which will launch the investigation after the end of its preliminary review on August 4, is expected to make use of the four-month investigation to further explore the use of data in healthcare, one of the people said.
The Commission declined to comment. Google reiterated previous comments, saying the deal is about devices and not data.
“The space for portable devices is crowded, and we believe that the combination of Google and Fitbit’s hardware efforts will increase competition in the industry, benefiting consumers and making the next generation of devices better and more affordable.” said a spokeswoman.
Google’s promise of data has drawn criticism from healthcare providers, wearable rivals and privacy advocates for failing to address their concerns that the deal would boost their dominance in the online search market and their wealth of data. .
The MLex news agency was the first to report the impending EU investigation.
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