WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) - The chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, and two other Republicans wrote to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Thursday to demand information about the agency's battle to oppose Illumina's purchase of former subsidiary Grail.
Jordan, along with Representatives Darrell Issa and Thomas Massie, expressed concern that the agency inappropriately worked with European regulators to get the $7.1 billion deal scrapped. Massie is chair of the panel's antitrust subcommittee.
"We have ... learned that the FTC worked with foreign regulators to deny U.S. companies due process," the lawmakers wrote in the letter requesting documents related to any contacts between the FTC and non-U.S. antitrust enforcers.
Illumina Inc has appealed the FTC's order to undo the transaction in an appeals court in New Orleans.
The FTC in April ruled for a second time that Illumina's 2021 acquisition of its formerly part-owned subsidiary should be undone. An administrative law judge at the FTC had earlier dismissed the antitrust charges brought against Illumina but FTC staff won an appeal against that decision.
The FTC has been concerned that Illumina, the dominant provider of DNA sequencing of tumors and cancer cells that help match patients with the best treatment, might raise prices or refuse to sell to Grail's rivals. Illumina has said it has shown that those concerns are unfounded.
An FTC spokeswoman said that the agency "regularly and lawfully cooperates with international partners and has for decades under both Republican and Democratic Chairs, a practice long welcomed by the business community. But we never outsource our authority." (Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
