Adobe has been issued with a proper antitrust criticism by EU regulators concerning its $20 billion bid for cloud-based product design platform Figma. Following an in-depth investigation that was launched on August seventh, the European Commission reached the preliminary conclusion on Friday that if the deal goes forward, it could “considerably cut back competitors within the world markets” for the provision of interactive product design instruments, vector enhancing instruments, and raster enhancing instruments.

The Commission has issued a press release of objections outlining its competitors considerations. This highlights that EU officers consider Figma already exerts a “important constraining affect” over Adobe’s Illustrator and Photoshop enhancing instruments, and is “considerably doubtless” to develop right into a aggressive power throughout the market for vector and raster enhancing instruments with out the merger.

The European Commission nonetheless has a deadline of February fifth to subject a remaining choice concerning the proposed Adobe / Figma merger

The assertion of objections doesn’t prejudge the end result of the EU’s investigation, which nonetheless has a deadline of February fifth. Adobe and Figma can now reply to the objections in writing to supply concessions that deal with the Commission’s exact regulatory considerations, and request a listening to, after which the Commission will determine whether or not the acquisition infringes on antitrust legislation.

“We stay assured within the deserves of our case, as Figma’s product design is an adjacency to Adobe’s core artistic merchandise and Adobe has no significant plans to compete within the product design area,” stated an Adobe spokesperson in a statement to Bloomberg. A Figma spokesperson additionally informed Bloomberg “We really feel assured in our skill to resolve regulators’ considerations and can proceed to interact in constructive conversations centered on the advantages this deal will create for shoppers and Europe’s innovation economic system.”

To date, each Adobe and Figma have reportedly not supplied any treatments to handle antitrust considerations raised by the investigation. Adobe already began to section out the supply of Adobe XD — a UX/ UI product design app that bears similarities with Figma — earlier this yr, after asserting the deal. The Commission now claims that the discontinuation of Adobe XD, alongside any potential successor product, would represent a “reverse killer acquisition” — a state of affairs during which corporations axe in-house merchandise to take away potential aggressive dangers to newly acquired services or products.