Universal’s $775 Million Downtown Deal Hit by EU Probe

Universal Music Group’s $775 million bid for Downtown Music Holdings faces a full-scale investigation by European Union watchdogs over concerns the deal could stifle the market for services to artists signed with independent labels.

The planned deal would allow Universal to acquire commercially sensitive data of rival record labels and to remove “an important competitive force” in the market for the supply of artist and label services, the European Commission said in a statement Tuesday.