A decision will now be made by the end of March

Dec 22, 2020 12:06 GMT  ·  By

The European Commission has recently offered its go-ahead to the Google-Fitbit deal, but the Australian competition regulator said this week it needs more time to make a decision in this case.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it doesn’t agree with a court-enforceable undertaking from Google, explaining it will continue to look into the deal and announce a decision by March 25, 2021.

“The ACCC continues to have concerns that Google’s acquisition of Fitbit may result in Fitbit’s rivals, other than Apple, being squeezed out of the wearables market, as they are reliant on Google’s Android system and other Google services to make their devices work effectively,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.

ACCC says the deal could eventually make Google the king of wearables, and the ACCC says it needs to inspect thoroughly how the collection of data would take place.

“We are also continuing to investigate the acquisition’s potential impact on wearable operating systems. The acquisition may result in Google becoming the default provider of wearable operating systems for non-Apple devices and give it the ability to be a gatekeeper for wearables data, similar to the position it holds for smartphones which licence the Android operating system,” Sims said.

Deal originally announced in late 2019

Google agreed with a court-enforceable undertaking that it wouldn’t hurt rivals and not use health data for advertising. However, ACCC says it doesn’t accept this proposal, despite the recent announcement released by the European Commission.

“While we are aware that the European Commission recently accepted a similar undertaking from Google, we are not satisfied that a long term behavioural undertaking of this type in such a complex and dynamic industry could be effectively monitored and enforced in Australia,” Sims continued.

The Google-Fitbit deal was originally announced in late 2019.