IC has pull-down resistors on SMBus lines?
The internal pull-downs in question are very weak, 1 M&Omega;. They are not meant to be "operational", and won't have any effect on normal I2C data transactions when the standard (10k-5k or 2k) pull-ups are attached to the I2C system bus. The reason for weak pull-downs is to provide well-defined bus state during power-on transients, when not all parts of the system are yet powered up. 

The initial state with pull-downs is used by internal logic of the IC, per datasheet P.34: 


  When the gas gauge senses that both lines are low (such as during
  removal of the pack),the device performs auto-offset calibration and
  then goes into SLEEP mode to conserve power"