The European Commission has announced that it has launched an in-depth investigation into Apple’s acquisition of music recognition app Shazam. The Commission is concerned that the acquisition will lead to less choice in the market for music streaming services.
Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the study aims to ensure that music fans can continue to enjoy ‘attractive music streaming services’ without being faced with fewer options in this market. The Commission is concerned that the acquisition will allow Apple to obtain commercially valuable and sensitive data about its competitors’ customers.
According to the Commission, access to this data could enable Apple to directly reach its competitors’ customers and persuade them to switch to Apple Music. This would allow Apple to outdo competing streaming services, thus leading to a competitive disadvantage. Vestager says the Commission will also investigate whether Apple could harm competitors after the acquisition by taking the Shazam app off the market. Moreover, the Commission does not yet consider Shazam to be an indispensable service for music streaming services.
The transaction associated with acquisition plans was notified to the European Commission on March 14. The Commission has 90 working days to make a decision on the acquisition; the deadline is thus September 4. According to the Commission, the start of this in-depth investigation does not yet say anything about the decision to be taken.
Apple confirmed in December last year that it plans to acquire Shazam. An acquisition price was not disclosed at the time. According to an earlier rumor, Apple is willing to put an amount of about 341 million euros on the table for Shazam. It is not entirely clear what Apple wants to do with Shazam’s music recognition, but in 2014 there was already a rumor that Apple wants to build the service into iOS.
Seven countries, namely Austria, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden, already knocked on the door of the European Commission in February and asked whether the EU could investigate Apple’s takeover plans. The Commission has accepted this joint request. This means that in any case the national competition watchdogs of these seven Member States will not start their own investigations.