Google's $2.1 Billion Fitbit Deal Faces Full-Scale EU Antitrust Investigation

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Google's $2.1 Billion Fitbit Deal Faces Full-Scale EU Antitrust Investigation


Alphabet unit Google this month offered not to use Fitbit's health data to help it target ads in an attempt to address EU antitrust concerns. The opening of a full-scale investigation suggests that this is not sufficient. The deal, announced last November, would see Google compete with market leader Apple and Samsung in the fitness-tracking and smart-watch market, alongside others including Huawei and Xiaomi.

The European Commission, which will launch the probe following the end of its preliminary review on Aug. 4, is expected to make use of the four-month long investigation to explore in depth the use of data in healthcare, one of the people said. Google reiterated previous comments, saying the deal is about devices and not data. "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 said.

 

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Google claims news is worthless to its ad business after test involving 1% of search results in eight EU markets | TechCrunch

Google has reported the results of an experiment it ran which removed news from search results for 1% of users for 2.5 months in eight* markets in Europe

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Google claims news is worthless to its ad business after test involving 1% of search results in eight EU markets​

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Google has reported the results of an experiment it ran which removed news from search results for 1% of users for 2.5 months in eight* markets in Europe — claiming the results show that news is essentially worthless to Google’s ad business.

The search giant conducted the test because European copyright law requires it to pay news publishers for reusing snippets of their content. But how much is displaying news worth? Google argues that publishers “vastly overestimate” the value of their journalism to its business; per its report of the tests, the actual value “could not be statistically‬‭ distinguished from zero, either overall or by country.”

Google will be hoping to use this outcome as leverage in payment negotiations with European publishers. But the tech giant is walking a tricky line, as it has already faced major antitrust fines in France in recent years in relation to news content. In particular, it was fined more than half a billion dollars over its approach to copyright negotiations with publishers , specifically.

Germany’s competition authority has dialed up scrutiny of elements of Google’s behavior around news — and forced the company to make changes . So any moves by Google to try to undercut the effect of the EU copyright law by claiming news is worthless could land it in more regulatory hot water.

Indeed, the company had initially included users in France in the news ablation tests but abandoned this portion of the experiment after a French court warned it would be fined for breaking a prior agreement with the antitrust authority. Notably, Google also did not run the test in Germany.

* Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain

Natasha is a senior reporter for TechCrunch, joining September 2012, based in Europe. She joined TC after a stint reviewing smartphones for CNET UK and, prior to that, more than five years covering business technology for silicon.com (now folded into TechRepublic), where she focused on mobile and wireless, telecoms & networking, and IT skills issues. She has also freelanced for organisations including The Guardian and the BBC. Natasha holds a First Class degree in English from Cambridge University, and an MA in journalism from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

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