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EU Decision Looms For Amazon’s iRobot Takeover

After clearing the UK competition regulator’s hurdle earlier this week, Amazon will learn the fate of its proposed A$2.44 billion takeover of Roomba maker iRobot, as the EU decides whether to launch an in-depth probe.

Reuters is reporting that EU competition regulators are seeking “an immediate offer that allays antitrust concerns”, or they will launch an investigation, which will add a further three months to the clearance process.

The decision is likely to be made before a July 6 deadline.

A number of advocacy groups have highlighted the privacy issues of such a deal.

“This is so Amazon can gather even more information about our lives and our homes,” said James Clark, executive director of Digital Rights Watch when the deal was first announced.

“At its core, Amazon is a surveillance company,” Clark wrote in a report.

“Amazon protects its market power and profitability by using its scale to build detailed profiles on millions of people and uses that to predict market trends and manipulate user behaviour.

“The personal information about Australians and their homes shouldn’t be treated as an asset to be traded and acquired. This is sensitive and private information. There needs to be real limits on how it can be used, and especially on how it can be shared.”

UK tech watchdog Foxglove Legal 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” to the CMA.

“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 said.



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