Paresh Dave

(Reuters) – The EU’s antitrust regulator takes a closer look at Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:) $16 Billion deal to Transcript Technology Company Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:) Inc. asked customers and rivals to create a list with their concerns. This was according to a survey that Reuters reviewed last month.

A person who is familiar with this matter said that the antitrust authority reported the greatest outreach since April’s announcement of the merger.

Microsoft did not comment. Nuance also declined comment.

The deal was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice and Australian Competition Commission after a minimal review. Companies applied to the European Commission’s competition Bureau for their approval last month. They have until December 21st to either approve or initiate a deeper investigation.

Although the companies were expecting to complete the deal before the end of the year, they indicated last month that the timeframe could be extended to next year.

This questionnaire will ask whether Microsoft or Nuance is a competitor and how a tie up could impact clients and rivals. It also includes whether Microsoft might favor Nuance over other services.

Nuance is a transcription company that sells technology for doctors, call centers and other professionals who need to be able to do note-talking automatically. Analysts consider the agreement to be a boost for Microsoft in the healthcare market and to bring it more voice and data that can help build artificial intelligence products in speech, biometric security and health.

Microsoft has been a major tech company for years, and it’s grown its businesses through acquisitions like in gaming and advertising. Microsoft, however, has avoided being the same target as Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:) Inc in recent years. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ :), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ :), and Amazon.com Inc.

Steven Weber from the University of California Berkeley, who is an expert on the intersection of technology, health, and medicine, expressed concern that Microsoft might force Nuance customers to use its Office suite by bundling them together.

Nuance claims it services 77% of U.S. hospitals.

Paul Ricci, a former chief executive officer and employee who was also a former employee, said that the key to their success was securing deals with customers so it could use customer data for voice recognition.

Reuters found a Nuance agreement with Augusta University Medical Center that states: “Customer will provide Nuance voice and text data…and gives Nuance a perpetual and royalty-free license copy, use, and analyze such data for Speech Recognition Research.”

Amazon and Microsoft, two of the largest cloud providers such as Amazon and Microsoft, typically don’t have unlimited access to customer data. This is because they are not able to conduct research or develop new products. Former employees stated that Microsoft’s interest is due to the chance to build those relationships.

Philips and 3M Co are two other providers of transcription technology for health.