Amazon’s bid to buy Roomba maker iRobot is called off amid pushback in Europe

Amazon called off its purchase of robot vacuum maker iRobot on Monday, blaming “undue and disproportionate regulatory hurdles" after the European Union signaled its objection to the deal. The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm and top antitrust enforcer, told Amazon last year of its “preliminary view” that the iRobot acquisition would hurt competition in the industry. “Our in-depth investigation preliminarily showed that the acquisition of iRobot would have enabled Amazon to foreclose iRobot’s rivals by restricting or degrading access to the Amazon Stores,” Margrethe Vestager, the commission’s competition chief, said Monday. The investigation raised fears that Amazon would have been able to “delist or not list rival robot vacuum cleaners,” reduce their visibility on its marketplace, limit access to “commercially attractive product labels” like Amazon’s Choice, or make it costlier for iRobot’s rivals to advertise and sell their products, she said in a statement. David Zapolsky, Amazon’s general counsel, lashed out at regulators and said consumers would lose out on “faster innovation and more competitive prices.” “Mergers and acquisitions like this help companies like iRobot better compete in the global marketplace, particularly against companies, and from countries, that aren’t subject to the same regulatory requirements in fast-moving technology segments like robotics,” he said.