Senator Warren and Other Lawmakers Ask FTC to Block Amazon's iRobot Deal

A group of lawmakers led by Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to reject Amazon.com Inc’s $1.7 billion deal to buy Roomba vacuum maker iRobot Corp, Axios reported on Thursday, Sept. 29 citing a letter.

The FTC last week had asked Amazon and iRobot for more information on the e-commerce giant’s buyout offer, which was announced in August.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) listens as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies during the Senate Banking Committee hearing titled “The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress”, in Washington on March 3, 2022. (Image: Tom Williams/Pool via REUTERS)

Warren and the FTC did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

According to a recent Politico report, the FTC had started an antitrust review of the deal earlier this month to see if it was illegally boosting the e-commerce company’s market share in the connected device market.

By Reuters. (Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)