Apples $400m Shazam acquisition is facing an EU competition review

ShazamThe European Commission has said it will review Apple’s proposed acquisition of music identification platform Shazam, following a request from several European nations for the deal to be looked at amid competition concerns.

Apple announced that it would buy the platform, which searches for and identifies songs by listening to a segment of any music, in December 2017. Though the price it was expected to pay was never revealed, it is believed the deal would be worth $400m.

The deal may be in jeopardy, however, after the Commission accepted the request from Austria, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden to review the acquisition as it “does not meet the turnover thresholds set by the EU Merger Regulation for mergers that must be notified to the European Commission because they have an EU dimension,” according to the Commission.

Under the EU Merger Regulation, there is a provision which allows Member States to request that the Commission assesses a merger that affects trade within the Single Market and could significantly affect competition within the territories of the requesting nations.

“The Commission considers that the transaction may have a significant adverse effect on competition in the European Economic Area,” said the Commission. “The Commission has also concluded that it is the best placed authority to deal with the potential cross-border effects of the transaction.”

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