Amazon's $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot is under investigation by the European Commission

It’s no secret that Amazon’s quest to dominate almost every smart home segment has landed the company in regular trouble. Now, in a recent development, Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot has come under scrutiny from the European Union’s regulatory body, the European Commission. It fears that this acquisition could result in restricted competition within the market for robotic vacuum cleaners, not only in the United States but also in Europe.

One of the major concerns for the commission stems from the fact that Amazon, as the controller of the biggest marketplace, could manipulate iRobot’s competitors from selling their robot vacuums on its platform. Additionally, the commission also fears that Amazon could manipulate search results, both paid and unpaid, in favor of iRobot’s products and charge significantly higher advertising fees to competing products, creating barriers to entry and limiting consumer choice.

Limiting access to Alexa

In this day and age of smart home products, voice-activated appliances have become a common phenomenon. However, with this new acquisition, the commission suspects that Amazon might limit its popular voice assistant, Alexa, to iRobot families only, stifling competition and ultimately leading to better sales for iRobot.

Furthermore, Amazon’s data privacy record is also of concern to the commission as this merger will grant the company access to iRobot’s data, which could lead to Amazon using it to enhance personalized advertising, giving them another unfair advantage over competitors and potentially compromising consumer privacy.

Although the matter is still under active investigation, the commission will make the final decision regarding the merger by November 15th. However, if successful, the acquisition will make iRobot part of Amazon’s ever-growing smart home family, which includes Ring, Blink, and Eero.

Amazon’s Response

When talking about the investigation, Amazon spokesperson Alexandra Miller stated, “We continue to work through the process with the European Commission and are focused on addressing its questions and any identified concerns at this stage.”