Apple’s $400m acquisition of Shazam to be examined by EU regulators

Apple’s $400m acquisition of Shazam to be examined by EU regulators

As reported by "Music Business Worldwide", Apple’s $400m acquisition of Shazam will have to be reviewed by European antitrust regulators. "Reuters", indeed, says that the procedure has now officially bagun, 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.

The acquisition’s pricetag wouldn’t normally lead to such an examination, as it is under the threshold for an EU review, but 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.

EU regulators might just approve the acquisition, but they also could enforce conditions on the agreement, or open a full-scale investigation.