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The senator Elizabeth WarrenD-Mass., and former Biden Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan are coming under fire for helping to derail a deal for Amazon to acquire Roomba creator iRobot, ultimately leading to the company’s bankruptcy and likely fall to Chinese control.
Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, a US national security watchdog group, criticized Warren and Khan for their opposition to the deal. Lucci told Fox News Digital that Warren and Khan’s opposition has directly contributed to “the growing penetration of espionage into American homes” and that “now it will be even more difficult for American families to avoid the CCP’s spying devices.”
In January 2024, iRobot announced that its deal to be acquired by Amazon had fallen through. At the time, iRobot cited regulatory difficultiesparticularly in Europe, for the failure of the agreement. In a joint Amazon-iRobot statement, the companies said the merger had “no path to regulatory approval in the European Union.”
This followed intense opposition from progressive lawmakers, including Warren, over “concerns about Amazon’s anticompetitive practices that endanger consumers and their privacy.”
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From left: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Chinese President Xi Jingping and former Biden FTC Chair Lina Khan. (Cheryl Senter/AP Photo; Ton Molina/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Massachusetts senator said: “I have serious concerns about the Amazon-iRobot deal – dominant companies like Amazon should not be allowed to simply buy out of competition. »
“The FTC should oppose this proposed merger in order to protect competition, lower consumer prices, and curb Amazon’s well-documented anticompetitive activities,” Warren said.
The FTC under Khan, who served as a top advisor to New York’s socialist mayor Zohran MamdaniThe transition team also opposed the deal.
At the time, the FTC issued a statement after the failed Amazon-iRobot merger saying, “We are pleased that Amazon and iRobot have abandoned their proposed transaction. »
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An Amazon warehouse. (iStock)
The commission said its “investigation revealed significant concerns about the transaction’s potential effects on competition,” adding: “The FTC will not hesitate to take action to enforce antitrust laws to ensure that competition remains robust.”
Two years later, after filing for bankruptcy in December, iRobot is expected to be bought by the Chinese company Shenzhen Picea Robotics and its subsidiary Santrum Hong Kong. This has sparked new concerns that iRobot’s sensitive home mapping data is falling into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
As Shenzhen Picea Robotics and Santrum Hong Kong are Chinese-controlled companies, they are subject to CCP laws. This means that any U.S. consumer data that companies gain control over may be subject to China’s national intelligence laws, which can force companies to provide information to the government without judicial oversight or public disclosure.
“As Lina Khan and Elizabeth Warren congratulate each other on block Amazon’s acquisition of iRobotthe real winner is communist China,” Lucci told Fox News Digital.
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Members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy march during the rehearsal before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing, China, September 3, 2025. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)
“iRobot went bankrupt and now Beijing-linked buyers are grabbing its assets, including sensitive home mapping data. This is the end result of their so-called ‘consumer protection,'” he continued.
“Ultimately, U.S. and European regulators played the role of useful idiots, giving China more access and leverage, and thereby reinforcing espionage’s growing presence in American homes,” he said. “It will now be even more difficult for American families to avoid the CCP’s spying devices.”
In a statement shared with Fox News Digital, David Zapolsky, Amazon’s director of global affairs and legal, said that “this is an unfortunate classic example of regulators – in this case the European Commission and the FTC – losing the forest for the trees, resulting in the loss of an innovative American company, American jobs and American intellectual property.”
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“When mergers are deterred, it can have long-term negative effects on businesses and workers,” Zapolsky said, adding, “These are precisely the things regulators claim to be trying to protect, but when processes become too cumbersome and disproportionate, businesses, workers and consumers lose.”
In another statement, Colin Angle, co-founder of iRobot, who stepped down as CEO of the company in 2024, lamented his bankruptcy filing, saying: “Innovation doesn’t just fail when ideas are wrong; it can fail when the path to the ladder is removed. »
“When category-building companies are denied viable ways to grow, everyone pays the price: consumers, employees, and the broader innovation economy,” Angle said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Warren, Khan and iRobot for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
