Adobe's $20 billion bid for cloud-based designer platform Figma will face a full-scale EU antitrust investigation following EU regulators' preliminary review, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

The move underscores antitrust watchdogs' wariness of tech deals where bigger companies may acquire rival start-ups to shut them down.

An Adobe spokesperson declined to comment on the EU review. The spokesperson said: "We continue to have productive conversations with regulatory bodies worldwide. We are excited about the value Adobe and Figma will bring to customers by making product design more accessible and efficient."

The European Commission declined to comment.

The European Commission earlier this year warned of the threat the deal poses to competition in the market for interactive product design and whiteboarding software.The EU competition enforcer is scheduled to finish its initial scrutiny by Aug. 7.

Figma's Web-based collaborative platform for designs and brainstorming is hugely popular among tech firms including Zoom Video Communications, Airbnb and Coinbase.

  - Reuters