Facebook
has been fined a total of £50.5 million for breaching the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) initial enforcement order (IEO) in relation to its acquisition of Giphy. The social media firm was fined because it resisted producing timely reports required by the IEO and it changed its Chief Compliance Officer on two occasions without first seeking consent.
Under the initial enforcement order, both Facebook and Giphy should have continued operating as though they had not merged until the CMA could complete its merger investigation. To prove that the two aren’t operating too closely, Facebook was required to provide reports to the CMA. However, Facebook limited the scope of these updates despite warnings from the CMA and, as a result, has been fined £50 million for this breach.
The firm was fined a further £500,000 for changing its Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) on two occasions without seeking consent from the CMA. By swapping the CCO, the CMA’s investigation could have been set back and therefore it has slapped the company with a fine.
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