January 14, 2021
Japan Fair Trade Commission
This case concerns a proposed transaction in which Google LLC (JCN3700150072195) (hereinafter referred to as “Google”) headquartered in the U.S. planned to acquire Fitbit, Inc. headquartered in the U.S. Google Group (a group of companies held by Google’s ultimate parent company Alphabet Inc. headquartered in the U.S.) is active in a wide range of areas, notably in services regarding digital advertisement, internet search, cloud computing, software and hardware. Fitbit Group (a group of companies held by Fitbit, Inc.) is mainly active in development, manufacturing and distribution of wrist-worn wearable devices.
(*)JCN: Japan Corporate Number
The acquisition did not meet the notification criteria stipulated in Article 10, paragraph (2) and Article 15, paragraph (2) of the Antimonopoly Act and therefore was not required to notify to the Japan Fair Trade Commission (hereinafter referred to as the “JFTC”) in advance, but the total consideration for the acquisition was large and domestic consumers were expected to be affected. Thus, the JFTC reviewed the acquisition.
As a result of its review, based on the premise that Google Group and Fitbit Group will implement their proposed remedies, the JFTC concluded that the acquisition would not substantially restrain competition in any particular fields of trade.
The European Commission and other foreign competition authorities also reviewed this case, and the JFTC conducted the review in cooperation with these foreign competition authorities.
＊It should be noted that this announcement is a tentative translation.
Please refer to the original text written in Japanese for more details.
