US lawmaker probes FTC work with EU to block Amazon iRobot merger

iRobot

01/05/2024 19:24

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) - The chair of the House
Oversight Committee said Wednesday he is investigating the
Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) work with the European
Commission in the collapse of Amazon.com's  AMZN.O  plan to
acquire iRobot Corp  IRBT.O  in a $1.4 billion deal.
    Amazon and robot vacuum maker iRobot in January dropped 
their plans to tie-up in the face of opposition from European
and U.S. antitrust regulators. 
    "The FTC’s anticompetitive actions threaten to harm
America’s global position in the personal robotics market, while
ceding market share of personal robotics to foreign entities
such as China," Republican Representative James Comer said in a
letter to the FTC asking for documents shared by the FTC with
the European Commission

 (Reporting by David Shepardson)
 ((David.Shepardson@thomsonreuters.com; 2028988324;))