Report: EU to investigate Amazons pending iRobot acquisition
Summary
Despite the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) clearing Amazon’s $1.7 billion pending acquisition of iRobot just last week, the European Union (EU) seems ready to open a full-scale anti-trust investigation into the deal, according to Reuters. While Amazon still has a chance to convince the European Commission that the deal wouldn’t interfere with antitrust laws, sources told Reuters the odds against that are high. While Amazon hasn’t commented much publicly on the FTC or EU investigations, it did previously highlight the size of the robot vacuum cleaner market, and the fact that much of its competition comes from Chinese players. The CMA also found this likely wouldn’t be an issue because robot vacuum cleaners, and the data they gather, are typically not important inputs for smart home devices. “More people are choosing to use ‘smart’ tech in their homes – whether that’s listening to the radio through a smart speaker, answering the door using a video doorbell, or keeping floors clean with robot vacuum cleaners,” Colin Raftery, senior director of mergers at the CMA, said.