Google’s $2.1 Billion Fitbit Deal Faces EU Antitrust Investigation: Sources

Author: Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Google’s $2.1 billion bid for fitness tracker maker Fitbit will be the subject of a full EU antitrust investigation next week, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Alphabet Inc’s Google unit proposed this month not to use Fitbit health data to target ads in a bid to address antitrust concerns in the EU. The launch of a full-scale investigation suggests that this is not enough.

The deal announced last November will see Google compete with market leaders Apple and Samsung in the fitness tracker and smartwatch market, as well as other companies including Huawei and Xiaomi.

The European Commission, which will launch an investigation after completing an initial review on Aug. 4, is expected to use the four-month inquiry to thoroughly examine the use of data in health care, one of the people said.

The commission declined to comment. Google reiterated previous comments, saying the deal was for devices, not data.

“The wearables space is a crowded one, and we believe that combining Google and Fitbit’s hardware efforts will increase competition in the industry, benefit consumers, and make the next generation of devices better and cheaper,” the spokeswoman said.

Google’s data commitment has drawn criticism from health care providers, wearables competitors and privacy advocates for failing to address concerns that the deal would increase Google’s dominance in the online search and data resource markets.

The MLex news agency was the first to report on the upcoming EU investigation.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Jason Neely)