Yet, as this column outlines, unprecedented concerns arise when one sees that allowing for Fitbits data gathering capabilities to be put in Googles hands creates major risks of platform envelopment, extension of monopoly power and consumer exploitation. The combination of Fitbits health data with Googles other data creates unique opportunities for discrimination and exploitation of consumers in healthcare, health insurance and other sensitive areas, with major implications for privacy too.As the consensus is now firmly that preventing bad mergers is a key tool for competition policy vis-a-vis acquisitive digital platforms, the European Commission and other authorities should be very sceptical of this deal, and realistic about their limited ability to design, impose and monitor appropriate remedies.
Google advertises its mission as to organise the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful but its business practices of the last decade suggest a more accurate statement: to monetise the worlds data.
Its history of systematic acquisitions across a vast chessboard of disparate activities, bolted onto its original Search behemoth, are unified by a common aim: to enhance and protect its unique data empire, and enable its monetisation in ever-expanding applications.
Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School and the University of Rome Tor Vergata , and CEPR Research Fellow
Original article