Amazon‘s $1.7 billion (almost Rs. 14,100 crore) acquisition of robotic vacuum cleaner maker iRobot might cut back competitors and strengthen Amazon’s place as on-line market supplier, EU antitrust regulators warned on Thursday.
The European Fee opened a full-scale investigation and can resolve by November 15 whether or not to clear or block the deal.
“We proceed to work via the method with the European Fee and are centered on addressing its questions and any recognized issues at this stage,” an Amazon spokesperson advised Reuters.
Antitrust enforcers world wide have stepped up scrutiny of Large Tech buying smaller rivals, involved in regards to the accumulation of troves of information by just a few corporations, and large gamers leveraging their dominance into new markets.
The acquisition introduced in August final yr would add iRobot’s Roomba robotic vacuum to Amazon’s portfolio of sensible units, which embody the Alexa voice assistant, sensible thermostats, safety units and wall-mounted sensible shows.
IRobot made its first Roomba robotic vacuum in 2002. Amazon has beforehand mentioned the vacuum cleaner market may be very aggressive, with plenty of Chinese language gamers.
“The Fee is anxious that the transaction would permit Amazon to limit competitors out there for robotic vacuum cleaners and to strengthen its place as on-line market supplier, ” the EU govt mentioned.
“The Fee intently cooperated with different competitors authorities through the preliminary investigation and can proceed such cooperation through the in-depth investigation (…) the opening of an in-depth inquiry doesn’t prejudge the end result of the investigation”.
The Amazon spokesperson additionally mentioned the corporate may “provide an organization like iRobot the sources to speed up innovation and spend money on important options whereas reducing costs for shoppers.”
The EU competitors enforcer’s determination confirmed a Reuters story final month and got here a month after the UK antitrust company cleared the deal unconditionally after a preliminary overview.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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