The BPPA’s submission to the Competition and Market Authority’s review in to Getty Image’s purchase of Shutterstock.
As part of the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) review in to the proposed purchase of Shutterstock by Getty Images, The BPPA was invited to submit evidence, informed by our members’ knowledge and experience within the industry.
Following a review of submissions, the CMA have provisionally ruled that the purchase cannot be approved unless Shutterstock first sells off its editorial business.
The CMA said the merger could result in a “substantial lessening of competition” within the UK’s editorial image market, in which Getty Images and Shutterstock currently provide separate and competing news-gathering operations.
In words that closely mirrored parts of the BPPA’s submission, the Financial Times quoted Margot Daly, chair of the independent inquiry group leading the CMA investigation as saying: “We provisionally found that a loss of competition could lead to UK media outlets, large and small, facing a loss of choice or getting a more expensive service, with knock-on effects for consumers that rely on high-quality content to stay up to date.”
The BPPA specifically represents the interests of photojournalists delivering high-quality editorial photography and, in our submission, represents the broadest interests of both our freelance and staff members, and of the wider public who consume our member’s work.
