<story><title>EU launches probe into Google-Fitbit takeover</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53647570</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wdabney</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;Wouldn&amp;#x27;t this be more like saying &amp;quot;if you do this, we will make things painful for you&amp;quot;? Am I completely missing something here?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ocdtrekkie</author><text>Presumably Google and&amp;#x2F;or Fitbit operating within the European Union depends on compliance with European law. So choosing to disregard the EU&amp;#x27;s decision on the matter could blow apart a large part of an international business.&lt;p&gt;My guess is Google&amp;#x2F;Fitbit could only proceed without the EU&amp;#x27;s approval if Fitbit stopped operating in Europe and deleted all Europeans&amp;#x27; data.</text></comment>
<story><title>EU launches probe into Google-Fitbit takeover</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53647570</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wdabney</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;Wouldn&amp;#x27;t this be more like saying &amp;quot;if you do this, we will make things painful for you&amp;quot;? Am I completely missing something here?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>arethuza</author><text>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.</text></comment>