The European Commission has initiated a full-scale investigation into Adobe's proposed $20 billion acquisition of Figma, a cloud-based designer platform. The move comes amid concerns that the deal could lead to reduced competition in the global markets for interactive product design tools and potentially exclude rival companies from the market.

Figma's web-based collaborative platform has gained popularity among prominent tech companies, including Zoom Video Communications, Airbnb, and Coinbase. The acquisition by Adobe, known for its flagship product Photoshop, could eliminate a significant competitor and potentially hinder Figma's growth as a competitor to Adobe's asset creation tools.

The EU antitrust watchdog aims to ensure that users continue to have access to a diverse range of digital creative tools. The fear is that the acquisition might lead to bundling Figma with Adobe's Creative Cloud suite, reducing competition in the interactive product design tools market.

While Adobe has received positive feedback from its customers worldwide regarding the deal, the company maintains that Figma's product design is an adjacency to its core creative products and has no plans to compete in the product design space.

The EU competition enforcer will make a final decision on the deal by December 14, either clearing it or blocking it to safeguard competition in the market.