European Commission Launches In-depth Investigation into Proposed Acquisition of Figma by Adobe

The European Commission has launched an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Figma by Adobe under the EU merger regulation. The Commission is concerned that the transaction could reduce competition in the global market for the supply of interactive product design software and digital asset creation tools.

Competition concerns ahead of the Commission;

The Commission's preliminary investigation shows that the transaction may allow Adobe to restrict competition in global markets.

• Interactive product design tools are constrained by the fact that the firm is by far the market leader and one of Adobe's biggest competitors, the transaction would remove a significant competitive advantage, and other players are unlikely to enter the market in a timely and reliable manner.
• Supply of digital asset creation tools: It is considered to be Adobe's intention to remove Figma's current restrictive influence over Adobe's digital asset creation tools and, if the merger does not materialize, to prevent Figma from becoming an effective competitor in the digital market for Adobe's asset creation tools.

The EU commission will also investigate whether the bundling of Figma with the Creative Cloud suite could disable competing providers of interactive product design tools.

The Commission will cooperate closely with other competition authorities during the initial investigation and will continue to do so during the in-depth investigation.

The proposed transaction was notified to the Commission on June 30, 2023. The Commission has 90 working days until December 14, 2023, to take a decision.

The full text of the press release is available here.

Sincerely,

Zümbül Law and Consulting

info@zumbul.av.tr