Apple‘s $400m acquisition of Shazam isn’t going to be quite as straightforward as the Cupertino giant would like.
According to Reuters, European antitrust regulators are now officially looking into the deal following a request from seven countries.
That request to the European Commission was made by Austria, with other similar submissions coming from France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden (home of Spotify, of course).
The acquisition’s pricetag wouldn’t normally lead to such an examination, as it is under the threshold for an EU review.
However, following the submissions from the seven countries, the EU antitrust enforcer has decided that the deal does carry a risk of having anti-competitive effects in Europe.
It now falls to Apple to ask the European Commission to approve the take over.
EU regulators might do just that – but they also have the right to enforce conditions on the agreement, or even open a full-scale investigation.
When Apple announced its acquisition of Shazam on December 11 last year, it said in a statement: ““We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple.
“Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS. Today, it’s used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, across multiple platforms.
“Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users.
“We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam upon approval of today’s agreement.”Music Business Worldwide
