The European Union is preparing to investigate Amazon's $1.7B purchase of Roomba maker iRobot Corp., according to The Financial Times.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, reportedly has concerns about the deal's impact on consumer privacy.
- Specifically, regulators are concerned about the ability of Roomba's autonomous vacuum cleaners to take photos of their surroundings.
- The photos can be used to generate maps of a person's home. According to experts, this data could potentially be used by Amazon to serve targeted ads.
- The EU is now reviewing the merger and could launch an antitrust investigation in the coming weeks, according to The Times.
- Amazon first announced plans to acquire iRobot in August. A month later, it was reported that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was taking a closer look at the deal and asked for more information from both companies.
- "We're working cooperatively with the relevant regulators in their review of the merger," an Amazon spokesperson said.
