Europe clears Google-Fitbit with a ten-year ban on using health data for ads
Europe has greenlit Google’s $2.1BN acquisition of fitness wearable maker Fitbit, applying a number of conditions intended to shrink competition concerns over letting it gobble a major cache of health and wellness data following months of regulatory scrutiny of the deal.
While Google announced its plan to buy Fitbit over a year ago, it only notified the transaction to the Commission on June 15, 2020 meaning it’s taken half a year to be given a caveated go-ahead by Europe. It is also now facing formal antitrust charges on its home turf from more than one angle (though not related to Fitbit).
The EU Commission Approves Google s Acquisition of Fitbit though Subject to Strict Conditions
In November 2019 Patently Apple posted a report titled Google s Parent Company Announces Acquisition of Fitbit. The acquisition was announced after the company had a big Q3 2019 earnings miss. The $2.1 billion price tag bought Google a dedicated team to advance their Pixel Watch plans which have been rumored for years. With Fitbit and Alphabet s finances, they may be able to put together a product line that might be able to challenge Apple Watch down the road.
Today, Google finally won European Union approval for its US$2.1 billion takeover of health tracker Fitbit Inc., days after regulators proposed tougher rules to curb powerful technology firms’ push into new services.
By Neil Hodge2020-12-15T20:19:00+00:00
Following a nearly two-year investigation and decision-making process, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) on Tuesday fined Twitter €450,000 (U.S. $547,000) for breaching Europe’s strict privacy rules for failing to report a data breach within the required 72 hours and document it properly.
The Irish DPC said the fine under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an “effective, proportionate and dissuasive measure.” Others are underwhelmed, as the penalty is equivalent to the social media firm’s earnings made in 90 minutes.
The Irish DPC began its investigation in January 2019 after Twitter self-reported a data breach linked to its Android app late due to “an unanticipated consequence of staffing between Christmas Day 2018 and New Years’ Day.” The breach affected at least 89,000 people.