Sen. Hawley urges FTC to probe Amazon planned purchase of One Medical (update)
georgeclerk

Update 2:38pm: Adds Amazon comment. 
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) planned $3.9 billion purchase of One Medical (NASDAQ:ONEM) due to concerns about patient data.
"This particular acquisition, if allowed to proceed, would represent an alarming new direction for a company that already wields far too much power," Hawley wrote in a Thursday letter to the FTC Commissioners. "Most importantly, this acquisition would provide Amazon with access to enormous tranches of patient data."
Hawley also expressed his concerns about Amazon's (AMZN) ability to potentially dominated the primary care market through its purchase of One Medical (ONEM).
"A market might be competitive now, but a few years after Amazon gets involved, it wonât be," Hawley opined.An Amazon (AMZN) spokesperson responded to Hawley's letter in an email to Seeking Alpha.
:âAs required by law, Amazon will never share One Medical customersâ personal health information outside of One Medical for advertising or marketing purposes of other Amazon products and services without clear permission from the customer," the Amazon spokesperson told Seeking Alpha. âShould the deal close, One Medical customers' HIPAA Protected Health Information will be handled separately from all other Amazon businesses, as required by law.â
The Hawley letter comes after Dealreporter Tuesday reported that the FTC is unlikely to challenge the transaction as there don't appear to be any business overlaps or vertical issues. The only issue the antitrust regulator may have is Amazon's (AMZN) size, though the FTC likely won't have any real theory to stop a transaction, according to the report, which cited sources familiar.
The story was earlier reported by Bloomberg.
Amazon (AMZN) agreed to purchase One Medical (ONEM), an operator of a membership-based primary care platform for nearly $3.9B, the companies announced on Thursday.