The government has cleared the way for Amazon to purchase Whole Foods, Inc., in a deal worth as much as $13.7 billion.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a Wednesday statement that the deal would not violate antitrust laws or result in creation of an anticompetitive market.
“Based on our investigation we have decided not to pursue this matter further,” Bruce Hoffman, the Acting Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition, said in the statement. “Of course, the FTC always has the ability to investigate anticompetitive conduct should such action be warranted.”
The board of directors for organic food seller Whole Foods approved the sale earlier Wednesday, CNBC reports.
The deal means that Amazon, owned by Jeff Bezos, will enter the traditional retail food market, in addition to controlling a large percentage of online sales.
Amazon gets nearly half of every dollar spent online, The Wall Street Journal reports. In July, 45 cents of every dollar was used to purchase goods from Amazon, up from 43 cents at the beginning of 2017.
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