Getty CEO Craig Peters says Getty may rethink its UK presence if the CMA blocks its Shutterstock deal, arguing the CMA is overlooking AI's impact on imaging
CEO says competition watchdog is overlooking how quickly AI is reshaping image generation — Getty Images boss Craig Peters …
Context & Ripple Effects
The proposed combination was already under pressure after the CMA identified competition concerns around the $3.7 billion transaction and later escalated to an in-depth investigation after remedies fell short. Peters is now explicitly framing generative AI as central to how that market should be assessed.
Getty has been building an AI strategy around licensed imagery, including its Nvidia partnership for tools trained on Getty stock images, while also pursuing litigation over alleged model-training infringement. The merger review therefore sits alongside a broader contest over who controls commercially usable visual-content libraries.
First-order effects
- Getty’s UK footprint becomes part of the pressure campaign around the CMA review: a prohibition could prompt the company to reconsider its local presence, as Peters says.
- The CMA faces a more explicit challenge to its market definition and competitive assessment, with Getty arguing that AI image generation changes the relevant competitive landscape.
Second-order effects
- A blocked deal would keep Getty and Shutterstock as separate buyers, licensors and distributors of stock imagery, preserving the competitive structure the CMA is examining while denying the companies the proposed combination.
- The dispute raises the importance of whether licensed archives and AI-generated alternatives are treated as substitutes; that distinction affects how image providers position their AI products and rights-managed catalogs.
Third-order effects
- If regulators increasingly treat generative tools as meaningful competition in creative-content markets, merger analysis may need to assess both established library concentration and the market power of AI platforms that can generate or distribute alternatives.
- The case also highlights a possible divide between policy aimed at preserving competition among incumbent rights holders and companies’ argument that scale is needed to compete in an AI-shaped market; the outcome will test which framing carries more weight.
The trend: Creative-content consolidation is increasingly being judged against the disruptive, but unevenly substitutable, rise of generative AI.