The acquisition of Fitbit by Google was approved by the European Commission, following a four-month investigation.
The acquisition giant bought the tracking company for $ 2.1bn (£ 1.5m) in November 2019 – but the EU warned that the acquisition could hurt competition.
Google has made a series of promises to address the problems of researchers.
The commission’s vice-president Margarethe Vestager said the agreement would keep the clothing market “open and competitive”.
European Commission expresses concern for Google:
- use a portion of Fitbit data in targeted advertising, making it harder for competitors to compete
- exclude third parties from the Fitbit platform
- leave competent competitors competing with their compatibility with Google’s Android operating system
Google has now promised:
- misuse of health, fitness data and location from Fitbit devices for advertising, to users in the European Economic Area
- to store Fitbit “cell” data, it is kept separate from any other data used for advertising
- maintaining third-party access to the Fitbit platform
- not to degrade the experience of a third-party smartwatches user when paired with an Android phone
Commitment should be maintained for 10 years.