Amazon announced a deal last week to purchase the grocery chain Whole Foods for nearly $14 billion. The company’s largest proposed transaction to date, it would give Amazon a physical presence throughout the nation — especially in the country’s most affluent cities. First, however, the acquisition must receive the green light from antitrust regulators.

Slate has called Amazon the most important problem in antitrust law, while the think tank New America argues in an op-ed in the New York Times that regulators should reject the transaction outright. Government scrutiny of this deal is already bringing Amazon critics out of the woodwork demanding a pound of flesh from the Internet retailer. But the antitrust case against Amazon is deeply misguided. Federal intervention will only hurt consumers and undermine innovation.