Washington | Reuters — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday it has cleared Amazon.com’s planned US$13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market.
The FTC said in a statement that it had reviewed whether the deal would substantially lessen competition or constituted an unfair method of competition and opted not to pursue its investigation further.
Earlier Wednesday, Whole Foods said shareholders in the natural and organic grocery chain had approved the proposed sale to Amazon.
Read Also
New U.S. tariffs start at 10 per cent, Trump administration working to hike them to 15 per cent
The United States began collecting a temporary new 10 per cent global import tariff on Tuesday but the Trump administration was working to increase it to 15 per cent, a White House official said, sowing confusion over President Donald Trump’s tariff policies in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court defeat.
The companies expect to close the deal in the latter half of this year.
Amazon’s takeover of the upscale chain would give it a foothold in the US$700 billion U.S. grocery market, key for it to grab a greater share of shoppers’ wallets.
It would also give the world’s largest online retailer hundreds of brick-and-mortar stores where it could showcase products and ready packages for home delivery.
Amazon and Whole Foods did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Antitrust experts had said the deal likely would win government approval because Amazon sells few groceries and Whole Foods itself makes up a small fraction of food sales.
Critics had argued there was precedent to block the merger, since Amazon would be leveraging its retail and supply chain power to dominate a new market.
The FTC opted not to make a second request for information in its review, which is often a burden for companies that have to provide extensive information that can drain time and resources to collect. Such requests have in the past led to concessions so a merger gains government approval.
In closing its antitrust review, the FTC noted on Wednesday it “always has the ability to investigate anticompetitive conduct should such action be warranted.”
Austin-based Whole Foods operates over 450 stores in the U.S. It expanded in 2002 into Canada, where it now has six stores in British Columbia and seven in southern Ontario, and in 2004 into the U.K., where it now has nine stores.
— Reporting for Reuters by David Shepardson in Washington, Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; additional reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.
