Earlier this month, according to a Politico report, the agency officially began a review of the iRobot deal to determine whether or not it violates antitrust laws. The FTC, for its part, isn’t totally out of the loop on this issue. Last month an Amazon spokesperson told Gizmodo the company had “no plans” to use iRobot’s tech in its warehouses. On paper, this acquisition should exist separately from iRobot. Now the firm and its roughly 200 employees will fold into the company’s Amazon Robotics Division. Amazon has reportedly worked with Cloostermans since 2019 to improve its growing line of warehouse robots.
“In short, the deal will further entrench Amazon’s hold on the smart home technology ecosystem, eliminate competition in that sector and enhance the company’s monopoly power,” the groups wrote.”įriday’s letter dropped the same day Amazon announced its intention to acquire Belgian warehouse robotic maker Cloostermans. The groups warn Amazon could push the product toward dominance through “anti-competitive pricing” and then take the troves of data from those devices to “further entrench their monopoly power in the digital economy” Roomba, will in effect feed the already engorged Amazon data beast. IRobot’s Roomba, the groups argue, could follow a similar path. That sudden market annihilation, the groups argue, was only made possible through Amazon pushing the product through its “ubiquitous” e-commerce platform at below market price points. Within three years, Ring transformed from a successful but growing product to the undisputed king of smart doorbells. To bolster that point, the groups pointed to Amazon’s 2018 acquisition of smart doorbell maker Ring. “Amazon’s business model largely relies on acquiring rivals, sometimes in adjacent markets, and then rapidly expanding through anti-competitive predatory pricing while leveraging vast troves of consumer data to grow its overall grip on the economy,” the letter reads. While Amazon’s recent acquisition attempt is significant, the groups warn Amazon’s iRobot deal amounts to a symptom of a larger problem. “Yet with this acquisition, Amazon stands to gain access to extremely intimate facts about our most private spaces that are not available through other means, or to other competitors.”Īmazon did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment. “There is no more private space than the home,” the letter reads. senators, warn we’ve already witnessed a version of this through Amazon-owned Ring sharing user data with police without its owners’ consent or a police warrant. households - could potentially misuse that potentially sensitive data. Privacy advocates, however, fear Amazon - which already has smart devices hooked up in around a third of U.S. That type of data is potentially well worth the $US1.7 ($2) billion Amazon intends to spend on the company if for nothing else than to determine more useful shit to sell you through its main business. That “consumer data” refers to detailed video footage of customers’ homes and floor plans constantly sucked up by iRobot’s Roomba and other home devices. “The company also aims to minimise fair competition by exploiting consumer data not accessible to other market participants.” “Amazon seeks to unduly expand its market power by eliminating a competitor through acquisition, rather than through organic growth,” the groups wrote.
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