The EU Commission’s competition watchdogs have approved the planned takeover of the fitness watch specialist Fitbit by the online giant Google. However, the approval of the merger is subject to the condition that Google complies with voluntary commitments to avoid distortions of competition, as the Brussels authority announced on Thursday. The company is not allowed to use data generated via Fitbit devices to optimize its advertising business and must give users the option to prohibit the use of data for services such as Google Maps and YouTube.

Warning from data protectionists The competition watchdogs had intensively investigated in recent months whether the takeover would have a negative impact on the markets for online Advertising might have. “If Google continues to expand its data advantage in personalizing advertisements that it places via its search engine and displays on other Internet sites, it would be more difficult for competitors to keep up with Google’s online advertising services,” said the EU Commission. This would create barriers to market entry and obstacles to expansion for competitors – which would ultimately come at the expense of advertisers and website operators, who would have to pay higher prices and have less choice. The now prescribed obligations would ensure free competition, it is now said.

At the beginning of November last year, Google had plans to take over Fitbit for a good two billion Dollar announced. It said that data from the fitness specialist should not be used for personalized advertising. At the beginning of the year, however, European data protectionists warned that a further accumulation of user information in the hands of a large tech company would pose a risk to the protection of privacy. Other opponents voiced their opinions in the summer.

Fitbit was a pioneer in the business of fitness bracelets that count steps and calories burned. However, this business has meanwhile been rolled out from two directions: Apple is very successful with its Apple Watch computer clock, which also has various fitness functions – and cheap devices from China, especially from Xiaomi, dominate in simple bracelets.

(mho)