The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating the anticipated acquisition of Shutterstock for £2.9bn by Getty Images to determine its impact on the stock image market.
The UK’s competition regulator said on Monday it was looking into whether the merger would hand Getty an unfair monopoly in the stock image market and therefore risk negative outcomes for UK consumers.
The CMA has issued an invitation to comment, a process during which the watchdog takes views on the matter to determine whether the Getty-Shutterstock deal warrants a full inquiry. This period will close on 7 July, at which point it will decide whether or not to enter a Phase 1 inquiry.
Getty Images announced the takeover plans back in January. The boards of both companies have agreed to the merger deal.
At the time, Getty Images chief executive Craig Peters said: “Today’s announcement is exciting and transformational for our companies, unlocking multiple opportunities to strengthen our financial foundation and invest in the future—including enhancing our content offerings, expanding event coverage, and delivering new technologies to better serve our customers.”
Should it go through, Shutterstock would be folded into the Getty brand, creating an enormous figure in the stock image market. The companies are particularly interested in combining the vast content libraries they hold to support AI image generation tools.
Both Getty and Shutterstock offer AI generation services trained on their content. The former has been engaged in a high-profile legal case with London-based Stability AI, which it has accused of unlawfully training its AI image generator on Getty’s content.
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