Gadgets
The EU is expected to launch a thorough investigation into Google's purchase of Fitbit
Google's $2.1 billion takeover of Fitbit is said to face increased oversight from EU regulators. Reuters estimates that the transaction will undergo a full-scale antitrust investigation, which the European Commission is set to begin next week. Regulators and user interest groups expressed questions over Google's proposed purchase of Fitbit, which refers to the search engine having access to personal data such as exercise habits, heart rate, sleep cycles, and more.
Market advocates from across Europe, the US, Mexico, Canada and Brazil have called Google's Fitbit a test case for regulators' efforts to combat technology monopolies.
Google has sought to cool down European authorities by promising not to use Fitbit 's health data to target advertising, but the Financial Times notes that this pledge has not been adequate. EU officials are currently requesting further compromises that will ensure Fitbit 's data will be available to third-party users, and are still offering guarantees that Google would not use Fitbit data to boost its search engine.
The EU investigation is expected to take an further four months to investigate the possible exploitation of Fitbit data by Google. Google revealed the purchase of Fitbit back in November, which may be a full year or so before it will be completed.
Google has invested $40 million to purchase some of Fossil's smartwatch technologies last year in a larger move to develop Android-integrated wearables.
A full Eu probe into Google's Fitbit offer appears to have taken place just days after several of the major US internet firms sat before the antitrust subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. Amazon, Apple , Google, and Facebook Executives took part in the trial yesterday, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in particular, answered a range of questions regarding the company 's market supremacy and the use of data to track future rivals.
