The European Commission (EC) has put Amazon on notice that regulators believe its proposed $1.4 billion acquisition of robot vacuum cleaners (RVCs) iRobot may leave its European competitors in the dust.
EU legislators are worried that purchasing the makers of the popular Roomba vacuum, which Amazon said it aimed to do in August, might cause the online retail giant to restrict or discourage the sale of competitive products on its European websites.
The commission sent a formal statement of objections to Amazon this week after it opened an investigation in July into the potential implications of the deal — originally valued at $1.7 billion before a reevaluation dropped the price.
