Technology

Meta fined £1.5m for breaching Giphy merger enforcement order

Facebook parent already fined £50.5m by UK competition watchdog

Facebook parent Meta failed to inform the UK Competition and Markets Authority that three ‘key’ US employees had left the company, a breach of its merger investigation rules, the regulator said. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP

Fri Feb 4 2022 - 17:54

Facebook parent Meta was fined £1.5 million (€1.77 million) by the UK's competition regulator for breaching an enforcement order during its Giphy merger probe, the latest twist in an increasingly messy fight for control of the GIF search engine.

The Facebook parent failed to inform the Competition and Markets Authority that three "key" US employees had left the company, a breach of its merger investigation rules, the regulator said on Friday.

"Meta failed to alert us in advance to important changes in their staff, despite knowing they were legally required to do so," said Joel Bamford, senior director of mergers at the CMA. "This is not the first time this has happened."

The regulator has taken a tough line against Meta on the deal, and already fined the tech giant £50.5 million for breaching its rules last year. Meta is appealing a CMA decision ordering the social network to unwind its $315 million purchase of Giphy, and a hearing is set for April 25th.

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“We are disappointed by the CMA’s decision to fine us,” a Meta spokesperson said, saying the company intended to pay the fine. “It is problematic that the CMA can take decisions that could directly impact the rights of our US employees protected under US law.”

Facebook has a history of breaching merger rules across Europe. It paid a €110 million fine for giving incorrect information to European Union investigators probing its takeover of WhatsApp. Austria also fined the company last year for failing to request its approval for the Giphy deal. – Bloomberg

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