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 in May 2020, after it decided the
remedies offered by the U.S. company did not answer its concerns over the
impact to digital advertising.
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 U.S. 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 U.S. tech giant and the UK regulator.
The CMA fined Facebook
50.5 million pounds 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 U.S.
employees protected under U.S. law,” a spokesperson said.