FTC Files Complaint Against Scottsdale-Based Body Camera Maker Axon

By Heather van Blokland, Steve Goldstein
Published: Monday, January 6, 2020 - 5:05am
Updated: Tuesday, January 7, 2020 - 9:42am

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A federal complaint filed Friday against body camera maker and manufacturer Axon said the Scottsdale-based company is breaking regulations on fair competition. 

The official filing by the Federal Trade Commission says Axon's acquisition of VIEVU, a competitor body-worn camera maker, should not have happened.

The FTC says separately, both Axon and VIEVU sold its body hardware to large, metropolitan police departments and that made innovation possible and allowed for substantially reduced prices for some large police departments.

By merging, the FTC says the combined company eliminated the direct competition that existed between the dominant supplier, Axon, and its closest competitor, VIEVU.

The Commission's vote to issue the complaint was 5-0.

To learn more about the business side of this story, The Show caught up with Scott Berg, Senior Analyst at Needham & Company.

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