Human rights and consumer groups had called on authorities to block the deal, citing privacy and antitrust concerns. The deal also attracted scrutiny in Australia, where competition regulators are mulling a similar offer from Google. The EU was initially worried the deal would expand Google’s “data advantage” and raise barriers for rivals in the online ad industry. Google made the commitments to get approval from the EU after the bloc’s competition watchdog launched an investigation of the deal this year. Google also vowed to continue giving outside health and fitness apps to access Fitbit data.-AP

Source: The Standard December 17, 2020 14:37 UTC