antitrust

By  Dave Muoio 12:29 pm December 17, 2020
Following months of regulatory investigation, the European Commission has officially signed off on Google's $2.1 billion purchase of health-wearable-maker Fitbit. Still, the go-ahead is contingent on a handful of commitments from the tech company that focus on its competitive practices across advertising, digital health APIs and smart device interoperability. "We can approve the proposed...
By  Dave Muoio 11:52 am August 4, 2020
It's been about nine months since Google officially announced plans to acquire Fitbit. The deal was expected to close in Q2 2020, but antitrust concerns from U.S. and E.U. regulators have so far stalled the purchase. That delay will likely run a fair bit longer with the European Commission announcement that its preliminary probe of the purchase will now expand into a full-scale investigation...
By  Dave Muoio 04:11 pm December 11, 2019
Not so fast? Google’s plans to purchase Fitbit will soon be under the US Department of Justice’s lens. According to a New York Post report, the merger raised antitrust flags at both the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission, with the former federal agency ultimately winning out. The Post’s sources said that both of these agencies are hesitant to allow Google an even greater view into individuals’...
By  Jonah Comstock 10:51 am September 12, 2016
Teladoc's antitrust lawsuit against the Texas Medical Board (TMB) is still a long way from over, but an amicus curie brief filed this morning in the Fifth Circuit Court shows that the telemedicine company has friends in high places: namely, the US Federal Trade Commission. A quick refresher: Teladoc sued the TMB in state court way back in April 2015, alleging that because the board was made up of...
By  Jonah Comstock 01:29 pm December 15, 2015
The judge in the case of Teladoc versus the Texas Medical Board has denied the board’s motion to dismiss the suit, responding to each of three claims that the suit was invalid, originally made in September. In the process, Judge Robert Pitman settled the issue of “active supervision”, a highly salient point in the case. In April, Teladoc sued the Texas Medical Board, alleging that a 2010 rule...
By  Jonah Comstock 11:47 am September 28, 2015
The Texas office of the Attorney General weighed in on a motion to dismiss Teladoc's antitrust suit against the Texas State Medical Board on the grounds that there is, in fact, state supervision of the medical board which would make it a state agency under law and therefore immune to suit. Politico first spotted the news. In April, Teladoc sued the Texas Medical Board, alleging that a recently...