FTC looking into Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical

Amazon’s $3.9 billion acquisition of the primary health organization One Medical is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, which might delay the closing of the deal.

According to a filing with securities regulators by One Medical’s parent company, 1Life Healthcare Inc. of San Francisco, both One Medical and Amazon received a request for additional information Friday in conjunction with an FTC assessment of the merger.

Amazon announced its intent to acquire One Medical, a concierge-style physician service with approximately 190 medical offices in 25 regions, at the end of July. The e-commerce giant announced last week that it would discontinue Amazon Care, a hybrid virtual in-home care service that competed with One Medical, since it failed to meet customer expectations.

The One Medical agreement, the first to be disclosed under CEO Andy Jassy, was Amazon’s second foray into healthcare following its $750 million acquisition of online pharmacy PillPack in 2018.

Groups advocating for stronger antitrust restrictions have petitioned the FTC to ban the One Medical merger on the grounds that it would bolster Amazon’s already formidable market dominance. The American Economic Liberties Project in Washington stated in July that it was uncertain whether Amazon would preserve patients’ sensitive medical records.

“Allowing Amazon to possess the health care data of an additional 700,000 or more persons is alarming,” said Krista Brown, the group’s senior policy analyst, in a statement released in July. Regulators should stop this $4 billion acquisition to prevent Amazon from becoming a big participant in the healthcare industry.

Friday, a spokeswoman for Amazon declined to comment.

The FTC has issued civil subpoenas in relation to its investigation into Amazon Prime’s sign-up and cancellation procedures.

Last year, the corporation unsuccessfully requested that FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan recuse herself from separate antitrust investigations into its business on the grounds that she was biased. Prior to taking the chairmanship, Khan was a prominent opponent of Seattle-based Amazon and other Big Tech firms. In 2017, as a Yale law student, she authored the influential study “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox.”

One Medical would be one of Amazon’s largest acquisitions, following its $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017 and its $8.5 billion acquisition of Hollywood studio MGM this year.