The European Union will investigate Amazon's acquisition of iRobot, worried about the privacy of the latter's floor-sweeping robots

Beijing, February 16 (Xinhua) it is reported that the European Union will investigate Amazon's $1.7 billion acquisition of floor-sweeping robot maker iRobot.

The European Union is concerned about privacy because Roomba, a floor-sweeping robot developed by iRobot, can take indoor photos of users. EU regulators have submitted a series of questions to Amazon about transparency. Amazon insists that there are privacy restrictions within Roomba and that the acquisition of iRobot will not give Amazon a market advantage because there are so many competitors in the vacuum sweeping robot market. In the United States, FTC is conducting a similar investigation into Amazon, but focusing on competition.

IRobot closed up 0.97% at $41.73 a share on the day, but it is still nearly 30% lower than Amazon's proposed purchase price of $59 a share, suggesting that investors are skeptical that the deal will pass the review.