Facebook has been told it is not “above the law” after being hit by a £50.5 million fine from the UK’s competition watchdog.
The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) today hit Facebook with the bumper fine, which was 150 times bigger than the previous biggest fine for a similar offence.
The punishment was in relation to Facebook’s $400 million acquisition of GIF website Giphy in May 2020. The CMA imposed an initial enforcement order (IEO) at the time, which requires firms to limit integration while the watchdog probes the deal for possible competition concerns.
Facebook was required to provide the CMA with regular updates but the watchdog said the social media group “significantly limited the scope of those updates, despite repeated warnings from the CMA”.
“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 continue to disregard its legal obligations,” said Joel Bamford at the CMA. “This should serve as a warning to any company that thinks it is above the law.”
A spokesman for Facebook said: “We strongly disagree with the CMA’s unfair decision to punish Facebook for a best effort compliance approach, which the CMA itself ultimately approved. We will review the CMA’s decision and consider our options.”
In August, the CMA provisionally found that Facebook’s acquisition of Giphy posed competition concerns in the UK digital advertising market. That paves the way for the regulator to order the unwinding of the deal. Facebook has until the end of the month to respond to the charges and a final report is due by December.
Heat from the CMA is just one of the regulatory headaches facing Facebook around the world. The company is facing intense scrutiny in the US after a whistleblower published internal Facebook documents about teen wellbeing on Instagram, a Facebook platform.
