EU Investigates Google’s Plan to Buy Fitbit

But the overture wasn’t enough to satisfy the European Commission, which said the proposal wouldn’t cover all the data Google could access as a result of the acquisition.

The regulators will also look into how Europe’s digital healthcare sector would be affected by the Google acquisition, as well as whether the purchase would give the company the ability and incentive to make it harder for wearable devices developed by rivals to work with Android.

Google may suggest more concessions to get the purchase cleared, but it’s hard to see what else the company could do to offset its formidable market power, said Agustin Reyna, director of economic and legal affairs at European consumer group BEUC, one of 20 organizations that jointly warned about the dangers of the Fitbit deal.

“Here, we’re talking about Google acquiring a new source of data which no other competitor has access to,” he said.

Google’s plan to acquire Fitbit marked a bold plunge into health and fitness technology for the search behemoth as it tries to become a force in consumer hardware.

Fitbit pioneered wearable fitness technology, with devices that track activities such as running, cycling and swimming and record heart rates and sleep patterns.

The company has about 30 million active users worldwide and has sold more than 100 million devices.

Apple dominates the wearables market, accounting for about 30 percent of wristbands and watches sold, according to International Data Corp. Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei are the next leading players, while Fitbit holds fifth place. 

(Writer: Kelvin Chan)

Source: https://apnews.com/e0c1dde88451763f04a6f133c78dbeab