Amazon’s planned takeover of Roomba vacuum cleaner maker iRobot is being probed by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority

The UK’s competition watchdog is focusing on whether the A$2.56 billion takeover will result in “a substantial lessening of competition.”

This comes after European regulators announced their intention to investigate the deal. The US Federal Trade Commission is already probing the proposed takeover.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company is “working cooperatively with the relevant regulators in their review of the merger,” while pointing out that consumers “have many options to choose from when they buy a vacuum.”

Foxglove Legal, the UK-based tech watchdog group that lobbied the CMA to investigate this takeover, voiced “grave concerns that the proposed merger is yet another example of Amazon’s habit of ‘snuffing out’ innovative entry and broader competition in existing and emerging markets”.

“Amazon already spies on our doorsteps and listens in on our dinner conversations – hoovering up iRobot would put Amazon inside our living rooms,” the group explained.