WASHINGTON – After House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) launched a probe into the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) role in the collapse of the iRobot-Amazon merger, Competitiveness Coalition Chair Scott Brown issued the following statement:

“American officials tasked with standing up for U.S. interests have no business working with European regulators to squash our own companies. House Oversight Committee Chairman Comer and his colleagues are right to take a hard look at the FTC’s concerning contact with the European Commission on this merger, particularly after it cost the jobs of a third of iRobot’s workforce. This fiasco was a serious blow to American innovation, a boon to foreign competitors and was a direct byproduct of Chair Khan’s overzealous and out-of-control agenda.”

Earlier this year, European Commission regulators acknowledged that they were “in close contact with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission,” throughout their investigation into the iRobot-Amazon acquisition, which was later abandoned and resulted in 350 American jobs needlessly lost. A source told Reuters that the FTC was poised to reject the iRobot-Amazon deal before the companies announced they were scrapping the merger. Chair Scott Brown lamented those layoffs in a Boston Herald op-ed.

This spring, the Competitiveness Coalition received a response from the FTC Office of the General Counsel regarding our FOIA request on suspected collusion between the FTC and European regulators. The public and media can access those FOIA records here.  

Members of the press can contact the coalition at press@competitivenesscoalition.com.

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The Competitiveness Coalition is a first-of-its-kind group educating the public and advocating for policies that put consumers first while fostering innovation and attracting new investment.