It appears the the European Commission will be granting Apple an unconditional EU antitrust approval for its planned acquisition of Shazam, Reuters reports, citing two people familiar with the matter. Apple originally announced its plans to acquire the music identification service last December, however the EU stepped in earlier this year with a full-scale investigation, expressing concerns about the acquisition stifling competition in the streaming music service market by “reducing choice for users of music streaming services” and giving Apple access to “commercially sensitive data about customers of its competitors” allowing Apple to poach users from its rivals or otherwise drive them out of the market.
The European Commission has not released any official update on the investigation, and its competition spokesman, Ricardo Cardoso, declined to comment to Reuters. The EU executive is expected to decide on the deal by Sept.
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