According to the new reports, the U.S. Justice Department will review plans by Alphabet-owned Google to buy fitness tracker maker Fitbit, in order to look for possible antitrust issues.
The deal, which was announced on 1st November, will give Google enough resources to take on the likes of Apple and Samsung in the crowded market of fitness trackers and smart watches.
Soon after the deal was announced, watchdog groups like Public Citizen and the Center for Digital Democracy, among others, urged antitrust enforcers to block the deal on the grounds that it will give Google access to even more data about American consumers.
If this news about U.S. Justice Department probing Google’s deal of Fitbit is true, then it will yet another addition for the Big Tech companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple who are facing a slew of antitrust probes by the federal government, state attorneys general and congress.
The Justice Department already opened a larger antitrust investigation into Google, and has also demanded documents from the company in September. The agency has also announced a wide-ranging probe of large technology companies, focusing on “search, social media, and some retail services.” The FTC was also given authority to investigate Facebook and Amazon.
The outcome of the Google-Fitbit acquisition probe, happening due to heavy public criticism amid growing tech monopolies, will indicate how seriously the Justice Department is actually pursuing limits on large tech companies’ power.
