The proposed Amazon acquisition of struggling iRobot the manufacturer of the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner has taken another twist, with the EU interim competition chief Didier Reynders warning that Amazon must pledge to fairly rank rival robot vacuum cleaners, such as those from Ecovacs fairly on its global web sites.

Currently Amazon is offering US$1.4 billion for iRobot who recently claimed that if the deal does not go through, they will face liquidity problems.

iRobot products are distributed in Australia by Melbourne based IXL Home.

His comments follow last week’s move by the European Commission to issue a formal statement of objections that could end up blocking the deal unless Amazon comes up with an offer to fix them.

“The main issue is to be sure to have a fair treatment of all the different actors,” Didier Reynders, the EU’s acting commissioner for competition, told reporters after an event in Brussels.

Reynder’s claims that Amazon should commit to ensuring the visibility of correct and transparent information on rival vacuums and rank them fairly on the company’s marketplace platform.

Bloomberg reported that the EU’s antitrust arm believes that Amazon could be tempted to demote other robot vacuum cleaners on its platform and promote its own products with such labels as “Amazon’s choice” or “Works With Alexa.”

The commission also said Amazon may find it “economically profitable” to shut out rivals.

While getting a statement of objections signals the EU has serious concerns with a transaction, most merging companies avoid a veto by addressing competition issues.