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The recent Amazon purchase of One Medical’s $3.9 billion deal (see Amazon Acquires One Medical, Making It a Leader in Hybrid Care) was closed hours after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it would not challenge the transaction. However, a history of FTC actions regarding Amazon may be of interest to professionals who have been following Telehealth.org’s reporting of Amazon’s moves into the healthcare arena. The FTC’s investigation of the OneMedical deal was initially released in late 2022 when a headline by the Wall Street Journal announced that the FTC was preparing a possible Amazon antitrust suit.1 Amazon privacy concerns have also been voiced by leading US Senators.
Amazon Antitrust & Privacy Concerns
Antitrust reform groups had been calling for the FTC to block the acquisition for months since Amazon’s announcement in July that it intended to buy One Medical. Proponents of antitrust reform argued that technology firms like Amazon hold so much data that their datasets are a barrier to entry for new rivals.
Amazon has invested in healthcare for years, including with an online pharmacy and other health ventures. The Amazon purchase of Medical One was preceded by its $750 million acquisition of the online pharmacy PillPack in 2018.
In current news, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), former law professor and the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, has been a prominent Amazon antitrust and privacy critic. In September of 2022, she challenged Amazon’s $1.65B acquisition of iRobot, calling on the FTC to oppose the purchase and, in her words, “raising concerns about Amazon’s anticompetitive practices that put consumers and their privacy at risk.” She reportedly…