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Google’s $2.1 billion (roughly Rs. 15,724 crores) bid for health tracker maker Fitbit will face a full-scale EU antitrust investigation subsequent week, folks aware of the matter mentioned on Thursday.
Alphabet unit Google this month supplied not to use Fitbit’s well being knowledge to assist it goal advertisements in an try to handle EU antitrust issues. The opening of a full-scale investigation means that this isn’t enough.
The deal, introduced final November, would see Google compete with market chief Apple and Samsung within the fitness-tracking and smart-watch market, alongside others together with Huawei and Xiaomi.
The European Commission, which is able to launch the probe following the tip of its preliminary overview on August 4, is anticipated to make use of the four-month lengthy investigation to discover in depth the usage of knowledge in healthcare, one of many folks mentioned.
The Commission declined to remark. Google reiterated earlier feedback, saying the deal is about units and never knowledge.
“The wearables space is crowded, and we believe the combination of Google and Fitbit’s hardware efforts will increase competition in the sector, benefiting consumers and making the next generation of devices better and more affordable,” a spokeswoman mentioned.
Google’s knowledge pledge has drawn criticism from healthcare suppliers, wearables rivals and privateness advocates for not addressing their issues that the deal would enhance its dominance within the on-line search market and its trove of knowledge.
News company MLex was the primary to report the upcoming EU investigation.
© Thomson Reuters 2020
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