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

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.

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.

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.

© Thomson Reuters 2021