Big Government

Joe Lancaster | 10.31.2025 3:35 PM

A struggling American manufacturer may soon face bankruptcy. This was not just the result of low sales, but of government regulators butting in.

Online retail giant Amazon announced in August 2022 that it had agreed to purchase iRobot, makers of Roomba robot vacuums, for $1.65 billion. The acquisition would expand Amazon's footprint in the smart home market, after it previously purchased video doorbell company Ring.

The following month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened an investigation into the merger. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and several Democrats in the House of Representatives sent a letter to then-FTC Chair Lina Khan, saying "the FTC should use its authority to oppose the Amazon–iRobot transaction."

The letter alleged that rather than compete directly with iRobot—whose products accounted for 75 percent of the smart vacuum marketplace at the time—Amazon was simply trying to buy its way in. "Rather than compete in a fair marketplace on its own merits," the lawmakers warned, "Amazon is following a familiar anticompetitive playbook: leveraging its massive market share and access to capital to buy or suppress popular products."

The European Commission—the governing body of the European Union—soon

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