the eu on thursday opened an antitrust investigation into amazons 17billion purchase of us robot vacuum maker irobot over competition concerns brussels said it was probing whether the acquisition would allow amazon to restrict competition and strengthen its position as an online marketplace provider we are concerned that by acquiring irobot amazon may use this dual role to foreclose access by irobots rivals to its marketplace eu competition chief margrethe vestager said with our indepth investigation we will also investigate whether amazon would use data collected by irobot to strengthen its position the purchase of the maker of roomba selfoperating vacuums announced in august 2022 aims to expand amazons artificial intelligence and smart home ambitions amazon said it continues to work through the process with the european commission and are focused on addressing its questions and any identified concerns at this stage the eus announcement comes after britains competition regulator approved the takeover last month