FTC to review Amazon’s iRobot acquisition for antitrust violations

The Federal Trade Commission is expected to heavily scrutinize Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot, according to a Bloomberg report. 

Lina M. Khan who is the new chairman of the antitrust regulator is famously against Big Tech and has been critical of Amazon’s aggressive acquisition strategy. The FTC is reviewing the ecommerce giant’s acquisition of 1Life Healthcare which it bought last month in July for $3.49 billion. However, they did give the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios acquisition a pass though that was before Khan took office along with a Democrat majority in the FTC. 

However, the FTC’s review does not necessarily mean that the deal will get held up. The managing director of Econ One, Hal Singer told Bloomberg that despite the FTC suing the merger deal, they might have a hard time with their “evidentiary burden.” According to him antitrust laws have become “feckless”, especially in challenge cases where companies aren’t direct competitors. 

Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot is not a coincidence. Since 2002, iRobot has been leading the industry in robot vacuums. Today, its Roomba product is synonymous with any other brand’s offering and according to Statista, has cornered 75% of the market share in robot vacuums by revenue, in the US. 

The ecommerce giant launched its own robot offering last year, Astro. The smart home robot integrates with Alexa and the Ring (a security camera doorbell).  Amazon’s acquisition is going to take out their “largest competition in a market they want to dominate” executive director of  anti-monopoly advocacy group American Economic Liberties Project, Sarah Miller told Bloomberg. According to her, “Buying what is your biggest competitor should be an antitrust violation.”

Amazon is far from the last company that the FTC has had its eyes on. It is building an an antitrust case against Meta, the social media behemoth that owns Facebook, Instagram and Oculus amongst many others.