Will ECG be available in EU outside the specified countries?

[Solosus]

Hey,

so i just chatted to live chat and they said that ECG will NEVER be available outside the EU countries specified in the press release. I was also told that "maybe in the future they add that function to all the countries worldwide".

Why is the main feature of this watch available only to specific countries? Is my ECG somehow different from person living 80km away from me? What am I missing?

Full transcript:

JuanRH (16/09/2020, 16:19:30): Thanks for the summary. I'm reviewing your issue now and will be right back.
JuanRH (16/09/2020, 16:20:15): You are right, that feature is not going to be available in all the countries.
Me (16/09/2020, 16:20:29): not for some time or not ever?
JuanRH (16/09/2020, 16:21:48): Up to today, never, but maybe in the future they add that function to all the countries worldwide.
Me (16/09/2020, 16:22:37): so, just to recap, you are saying that the main feature of your watch will not be accessible in the selected EU countries ever. That is absolutelly crazy
JuanRH (16/09/2020, 16:23:37): That's exactly what I said.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[JohnnyRow]

Just a couple of days ago the ECG function just got regulatory clearance in U.S. and Europe, so I expect it to be available in U.S.

I don't know about other countries.

The issue is getting regulatory clearance from the countries.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200914005215/en/Fitbit-Receives-Regulatory-Clearance-in-Bot...

[rmeszaros]

Wow, that's nonsense!

I always have the feeling during chatting with a Fitbit CSR that we're misunderstanding each other. Their answers are strange. Let's hope it's the case here, too. 

[N8teGee]

Yes as @JohnnyRow says, the ECG function has passed the EU (CE) regulatory approval. So it will be available within the EU, I think I read sometime in October. 

[Solosus]

It will be released in "selected EU countries", which were listed in the press release. As per live chat, Fitbit does not intent to release in the entire EU. I live in a country not on the list so no ECG for me. 

[RB_Swe]

So, the EU has said OK for the device to be sold within EU with the CE mark, and the CE mark is accepted in the whole of the EU and the EES (like Norway).

So its a Fitbit decision, and i guess thats a business case decision. My gut feeling is thats connected to the Fitbit Premium service. They want the Premium service to be fully functional in the local language before they activate the ECG.

[MatthewFitbit]

@Solosus The ECG app will be available in October 2020 to customers in the US, certain European countries, and Hong Kong. Further availability is pending applicable regulatory clearances. Apologies for the misunderstanding during that chat session. I will check in with our team to make sure we're communicating more clearly in the future.

[Solosus]

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@MatthewFitbit wrote:

Further availability is pending applicable regulatory clearances.

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This is simply not true for the EU as all "applicable regulatory clearances" were satisfied with the CE certification, so currently Fitbit can use ECG app in the entire EU.

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@RB_Swe wrote:

So its a Fitbit decision, and i guess thats a business case decision. My gut feeling is thats connected to the Fitbit Premium service. They want the Premium service to be fully functional in the local language before they activate the ECG.

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It likely is a localization issue as all countries in the EU that will have ECG have app localization. I am from Slovakia and I could use Czech localization, both languages are as similar as US and UK English so i doubt Fitbit will hurry to localize the application into less used languages. Still, it seems like bad deciscion to delay very important feature for possibly months just because of the language (which was not any concert to Fitbit till now).

[RB_Swe]

The CE marking is not only for the entire EU, the mark is also accepted in countries within the EEA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area) like Norway and Iceland and also Turkey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking).but also UK til the end of this year (BREXIT) then they go for their own UKCA marking (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/using-the-ukca-mark-from-1-january-2021 ) with their own set of rules and approval processes.

[UserJ]

During last September I have searched many topics and tried to contact with Fitbit but they just don't answer me or haven't given any  clear answer, saying that they don't know and so on. Now I see why - they didn't want to stop me for buying FULL PRICE product with premium account providing only half of thea features. As reading this topic it is really dissapointing because ECG function on Fitbit has EU's CE-regulation and usually all products that are on the market with CE-marking are able to be so in all European Union countries and I also asked from the local Ministry of Health and they said that if it has CE marking it is only for some paperwork behalf of Fitbit. It really seems to me that they just discriminate some countries and I don't know why. And at the same time the put the product on the market with full price and also premium account is the same price as other countries.

I really wanted to puchase this smart watch so long but it seems I need to find something else that can help me with health data. 

Dissapointed beyond universe! 

[Solosus]

Hey,

it is totally possible to set different country in your Fitbit profile (on the web, not mobile app). If you select supported country, ECG and all other funcionallity will work. I am using ECG in unsupported country from the beginning.

[jTiKey]

@Solosus 
When you try to get the report in the app, it checks your location and disables it 🙂

[Solosus]

I just tried it and it worked, i did get the PDF normally as always. Either it works as i described it or Slovakia is now supported country.

Just to clarify this is what i am using:

• Phone with English language
• Fitibt account set with US or UK address (on the web, not the mobile app itself)
• English as watch language
• If there is any other "country" setting it is set to US or UK too i guess

That should be all. I have ECG, google assistant and everything i think. Not sure if anything is blocked.

[jTiKey]

EU is supported.

[Solosus]

Well yes and no. For example Slovakia is not marked as supported country and it is in the EU. Probably because Fitbit does not have localization for the language. All my posts are regarding "using ECG in officially unsupported EU country". I can not confirm if this works outside Europe for obvious reasons. The user i was replying to specifically asked about EU country.

[jTiKey]

I'm in Ukraine and it doesn't work no matter where I change my country.

This topic it pretty old. Poland and Romania are supported so there's a higher chance it supports ECG than it doesn't.