Facebook-Owner Meta Says It Will Pay $2 Million in New UK Fine

UK’s regulator had ordered Meta to sell animated images platform Giphy, acquired for a reported $400 million (roughly Rs. 2,988 crore) in May 2020.

By Reuters | Updated: 4 February 2022 19:13 IST

Photo Credit: Unsplash/ Dima Solomin

The CMA said Meta had failed to comply with certain aspects of its requirements

Highlights

The CMA has been investigating the dominance of major tech firms
Meta is appealing the CMA's order directing it to sell Giphy
Facebook was fined 50.5 million pounds (roughly Rs. 380 crore) last year

Britain's competition regulator said on Friday it had fined Facebook-owner Meta 1.5 million pounds (roughly Rs. 11 crore) over fresh issues regarding its purchase of Giphy, a sanction that the US firm said it would accept.

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has taken a tough line with major tech groups in recent years, investigating their dominance of markets such as digital advertising and seeking to block the Facebook-Giphy deal.

The CMA ordered Meta to sell animated images platform Giphy, which it acquired for a reported $400 million (roughly Rs. 2,988 crore) in May 2020, after it decided the remedies offered by the US company did not answer its concerns over the impact to digital advertising.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

It said on Friday that Meta had failed to comply with certain aspects of its requirements in regard to the handling of Giphy, with the US firm failing to notify the UK regulator that key staff had left Meta.

The CMA described this as a "serious and particularly flagrant nature of Meta's failure to comply" with rules it set to make sure the two firms were still competing with each other, and do not integrate, while the regulator investigated the deal.

Friday's announcement marks a new deterioration in relations between the US tech giant and the UK regulator.

Meta’s Historic Slip: Key Factors That Shook Investors’ Confidence

The CMA fined Facebook GBP 50.5 million (roughly Rs. 380 crore) over other breaches in October last year and ordered Meta to sell Giphy. Meta is appealing the ruling to sell. It said on Friday it did not agree with the CMA's latest fine but would pay it.

It added that it could not prevent staff from leaving the company.

"We intend to pay the fine, but it is problematic that the CMA can take decisions that could directly impact the rights of our US employees protected under US law," a spokesperson said.

Google-Parent Alphabet Eyes $2-Trillion Value After Blowout Results

© Thomson Reuters 2021

Why is 5G taking so long? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.