Getty Images' $3.7 billion acquisition of Shutterstock is facing a deep investigation by British regulatory authorities.

Getty Images Group (GETY.US) plans to acquire its competitor, the material image provider Shutterstock Inc., and this deal will face a thorough investigation by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) due to concerns that it may hinder competition. The CMA announced on Monday that the deal would create a combined company worth approximately $3.7 billion, and it could potentially lead to issues such as price increases for customers, deteriorating business terms, and a decrease in the quality of news and material images. As of the time of writing, Getty Images stock fell by 4.79% in pre-market trading. The CMA noted that the remedies proposed by the two content licensing companies were insufficient to avoid initiating a "Phase II investigation." The agency will make a final decision on the deal by April 19th. Getty Images plans to complete the acquisition by paying $3.31 billion in cash and 319.4 million shares of its own stock, resulting in its shareholders holding 54.7% of the merged company. This deal will integrate the world's two largest authorized visual content providers at a time when artificial intelligence is disrupting the content creation market and smartphone cameras are weakening the value of material images. The deal is also under review by the US Department of Justice. Spokespersons for Getty Images and Shutterstock have not yet responded to requests for comment. Last month, the CMA expressed concerns that the deal could significantly weaken competition in the UK news content supply market and the global material content supply market. The regulatory agency stated that the competitors of the two companies would need to bear significant investment costs to reach a sufficient scale and become competitive alternatives.