Google’s takeover of Fitbit has been approved by the European Commission, following a four-month investigation.
The search giant bought the fitness tracking company for $2.1bn (£1.5bn) last November but the EU warned the acquisition could harm competition.
Life and medical insurance companies, including Vitality, offer Fitbit to customers as part of their propositions.
The EC had expressed concerns Google would use Fitbit data for targeted advertising in a way that would make it harder for rivals to compete. The EC had also expressed concerns Google could exclude third parties from the Fitbit platform or disadvantage rival wearable device-makers by degrading their compatibility with Google’s Android smartphone operating system.
But following the four-month probe, EC executive vice-president Margarethe Vestager said the deal would keep the wearables market “open and competitive”.
Google has pledged not to use health, fitness and location data from Fitbit devices for advertising, for users in the European Economic Area.
The search giant has also promised neither to store Fitbit data in a “silo”, kept separate from any other data used for advertising nor to degrade the user experience of third-party smartwatches when paired with an Android phone.
Google has also said it will maintain third-party access to the Fitbit platform.
The commitments must be kept for 10 years.
