5 ms·

To what degree does the EC actually get a say in this? These are both American companies, so presumably the commission cannot block the acquisition. Wouldn't t

To what degree does the EC actually get a say in this? These are both American companies, so presumably the commission cannot block the acquisition. Wouldn't this be more like saying "if you do this, we will make things painful for you"? Am I completely missing something here?

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
Presumably Google and/or Fitbit operating within the European Union depends on compliance with European law. So choosing to disregard the EU's decision on the matter could blow apart a large part of an international business. My guess is Google/Fitbit could only proceed without the EU's approval if Fitbit stopped operating in Europe and deleted all Europeans' data.
- dogma1138 6y ago
  So all the European consumers who bought a Fitbit can be screwed?
  - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    Arguably: All European customers who bought a Fitbit are likely screwed anyways, Google has a poor history with supporting acquired product lines. While I am irritated about my data being acquired, personally, I'd also recommend against anyone buying a Fitbit while this acquisition is in flux, as Google might choose to terminate service to devices shortly post-acquisition anyways. And privacy loss is a harm as well. In short, this acquisition is already harming everyone, and the EU is trying to prevent the most consumer harm.
    - TheMblabla 6y ago
      *Google has a poor history with supporting acqui-hired product lines. I think most of the terminated services were fairly predictable (i.e. North)
      - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
        We have no idea what Google's endgame for Fitbit is. Keep Fitbit OS or shove Android Wear on the brand? Focus on the Fitbit app or push everyone to Google Health. Without knowing this, there's no safe bet in buying a Fitbit right now.
QuesnayJr 6y ago
Their products are readily available in Europe.
tanilama 6y ago
If it affects EU users then they have the right to not allow such merger to happen in the first place
arethuza 6y ago
Anything the size of Google is actually a collection of multiple (probably hundreds) of separate legal entities in each country it has significant operations (e.g. a sales office) - all of these will be ultimately owned by whatever the top level listed company (presumably Alphabet). So Google almost certainly has companies in most of the countries of the EU.
est31 6y ago
It's pretty common for international companies to need approvals by multiple governments for mergers. For example, when German Bayer bought Monsanto, a US company, the Chinese government had to approve it.
monoclechris 6y ago
Standard bureaucracy to make people feel important.
maest 6y ago
> if you do this, we will make things painful for you To be fair, that's generally how law enforcement and regulation enforcement usually works.
Shivetya 6y ago
Google has lots and lots of money and an EU presence. Hence it goes with the territory. Each little domain needs to have its say and compensation. to the point that it may end up having some countries treating fines and such as tariffs of a sort.
macspoofing 6y ago
>To what degree does the EC actually get a say in this? These are both American companies, so presumably the commission cannot block the acquisition. If Google doesn't want to do business in the EU then EU has no say in it.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
kalleboo 6y ago
Both Google and Fitbit have major EU subsidiaries in order to serve the European market. They could spin off the EU subsidiaries and merge only the US headquarters, although that would probably be impractical. Google Ads policy: "“Google Entity” means Google LLC (formerly known as Google Inc.), Google Ireland Limited or any other Affiliate of Google LLC" Fitbit Privacy Policy: "Fitbit International Limited, an Irish company, is your data controller and provides the Services if you live in the EEA, UK or Switzerland"
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  Intriguingly, it appears TikTok is doing just this to deal with the US government. Selling their US business but having a presence there, managed by a different company, has apparently been seen as a worthwhile option. But yeah, there's a lot of potential issues, especially if said divestments/spinoffs are really only such on paper. Too much coordination and the government still may be upset about it.
munk-a 6y ago
"American Companies" is a pretty arbitrary measure these days - both domestic and abroad corporations are gone after by threatening (and carrying out depending on the judgement) to restrict domestic business and seize domestic assets. The US doesn't really have legal standing to seize assets of Google in their London offices (though the UK may be happy to run an assist) and the EC can't seize property in Mountain View - but Google is international and has assets in most countries that can be seized - for them the bigger threat is probably a restriction of business if google search were to be banned in the eurozone[1] then there would likely be a reverse network effect that led to a loss of traffic globally - it wouldn't be unlikely for a lot of browsers to pull google from being a default search engine. So, the EC has teeth they can use to enforce here - but more importantly google also wants to minimize how much they piss people off. Hence a PR stance of "Hey, we're sorry you feel that way - is there anything we can do to make this go away faster?" 1. I'm not saying this is likely or makes any sense for this particular probe.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago

Presumably Google and/or Fitbit operating within the European Union depends on compliance with European law. So choosing to disregard the EU's decision on the matter could blow apart a large part of an international business. My guess is Google/Fitbit could only proceed without the EU's approval if Fitbit stopped operating in Europe and deleted all Europeans' data.

dogma1138 6y ago
So all the European consumers who bought a Fitbit can be screwed?
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  Arguably: All European customers who bought a Fitbit are likely screwed anyways, Google has a poor history with supporting acquired product lines. While I am irritated about my data being acquired, personally, I'd also recommend against anyone buying a Fitbit while this acquisition is in flux, as Google might choose to terminate service to devices shortly post-acquisition anyways. And privacy loss is a harm as well. In short, this acquisition is already harming everyone, and the EU is trying to prevent the most consumer harm.
  - TheMblabla 6y ago
    *Google has a poor history with supporting acqui-hired product lines. I think most of the terminated services were fairly predictable (i.e. North)
    - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
      We have no idea what Google's endgame for Fitbit is. Keep Fitbit OS or shove Android Wear on the brand? Focus on the Fitbit app or push everyone to Google Health. Without knowing this, there's no safe bet in buying a Fitbit right now.

QuesnayJr 6y ago

Their products are readily available in Europe.

tanilama 6y ago

If it affects EU users then they have the right to not allow such merger to happen in the first place

arethuza 6y ago

Anything the size of Google is actually a collection of multiple (probably hundreds) of separate legal entities in each country it has significant operations (e.g. a sales office) - all of these will be ultimately owned by whatever the top level listed company (presumably Alphabet). So Google almost certainly has companies in most of the countries of the EU.

est31 6y ago

It's pretty common for international companies to need approvals by multiple governments for mergers. For example, when German Bayer bought Monsanto, a US company, the Chinese government had to approve it.

monoclechris 6y ago

Standard bureaucracy to make people feel important.

maest 6y ago

> if you do this, we will make things painful for you To be fair, that's generally how law enforcement and regulation enforcement usually works.

Shivetya 6y ago

Google has lots and lots of money and an EU presence. Hence it goes with the territory. Each little domain needs to have its say and compensation. to the point that it may end up having some countries treating fines and such as tariffs of a sort.

macspoofing 6y ago

>To what degree does the EC actually get a say in this? These are both American companies, so presumably the commission cannot block the acquisition. If Google doesn't want to do business in the EU then EU has no say in it.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

kalleboo 6y ago

Both Google and Fitbit have major EU subsidiaries in order to serve the European market. They could spin off the EU subsidiaries and merge only the US headquarters, although that would probably be impractical. Google Ads policy: "“Google Entity” means Google LLC (formerly known as Google Inc.), Google Ireland Limited or any other Affiliate of Google LLC" Fitbit Privacy Policy: "Fitbit International Limited, an Irish company, is your data controller and provides the Services if you live in the EEA, UK or Switzerland"

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
Intriguingly, it appears TikTok is doing just this to deal with the US government. Selling their US business but having a presence there, managed by a different company, has apparently been seen as a worthwhile option. But yeah, there's a lot of potential issues, especially if said divestments/spinoffs are really only such on paper. Too much coordination and the government still may be upset about it.

munk-a 6y ago

"American Companies" is a pretty arbitrary measure these days - both domestic and abroad corporations are gone after by threatening (and carrying out depending on the judgement) to restrict domestic business and seize domestic assets. The US doesn't really have legal standing to seize assets of Google in their London offices (though the UK may be happy to run an assist) and the EC can't seize property in Mountain View - but Google is international and has assets in most countries that can be seized - for them the bigger threat is probably a restriction of business if google search were to be banned in the eurozone[1] then there would likely be a reverse network effect that led to a loss of traffic globally - it wouldn't be unlikely for a lot of browsers to pull google from being a default search engine. So, the EC has teeth they can use to enforce here - but more importantly google also wants to minimize how much they piss people off. Hence a PR stance of "Hey, we're sorry you feel that way - is there anything we can do to make this go away faster?" 1. I'm not saying this is likely or makes any sense for this particular probe.