UK's Competition and Market Authority fines Facebook £ 50.5 million for breaching order
Oct 20, 2021
London [UK], October 20 : The UK's Competition and Market Authority (CMA) has fined Facebook £ 50.5 million for breaching an order imposed by the CMA during its investigation into Facebook's purchase of Giphy.
The CMA said in a statement on Wednesday, "It is standard practice to issue an initial enforcement order (IEO) at the start of an investigation into a completed acquisition. This ensures that companies continue to compete with each other as they would have without the merger, and prevents the companies involved from integrating further while a merger investigation is ongoing."
The CMA had imposed this type of order on Facebook in June 2020 in relation to its purchase of Giphy.
Facebook is required, as part of the process, to provide the CMA with regular updates outlining its compliance with the IEO.
The tech giant Facebook significantly limited the scope of those updates, despite repeated warnings from the CMA.
"It was also criticised last year by the Competition Appeal Tribunal and Court of Appeal for its lack of cooperation with the CMA and 'what might be regarded as a high-risk strategy' in relation to not complying with the IEO and not keeping the CMA updated as the IEO required," the statement added.
Joel Bamford, Senior Director of Mergers at the CMA, said: "Initial enforcement orders are a key part of the UK's voluntary merger control regime. Companies are not required to seek CMA approval before they complete an acquisition but, if they decide to go ahead with a merger, we can stop the companies from integrating further if we think consumers might be affected and an investigation is needed."
"We warned Facebook that its refusal to provide us with important information was a breach of the order but, even after losing its appeal in two separate courts, Facebook continued to disregard its legal obligations," Bamford added.
Separately, the CMA has fined Facebook 5,00,000 pounds for changing its Chief Compliance Officer on two separate occasions without seeking consent first.
The CMA's investigation into Facebook's merger with Giphy is ongoing and it will work constructively with the companies as things progress further. No decision has yet been reached in relation to the merger.
