Meta has been hit with a £1.5 million ($2.1m fine regarding its purchase of GIF sharing app Giphy.
The company behind social networking apps Facebook and WhatsApp acquired Giphy for a reported $400 million but failed to inform the Competition and Markets Authority that three US employees had left the company, which was found to be a breach of the merger investigation rules.
Joel Bamford, senior director of mergers at the CMA said in a statement: "Meta failed to alert us in advance to important changes in their staff, despite knowing they were legally required to do so. This is not the first time this has happened."
The CMA went on to describe the latest breach as a "serious and particularly flagrant nature of Meta's failure to comply.
In response, the company - which is owned by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg - claimed to be "disappointed" by the CMA's decision to fine them, labelling the incident as "problematic" for their employees, but nonetheless agreed to pay the fine.
A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement: "We are disappointed by the CMA’s decision to fine us. It is problematic that the CMA can take decisions that could directly impact the rights of our US employees protected under US law."
It comes after the company was previously fined Facebook £50.5 million over other breaches in October last year and ordered Meta to sell Giphy."
Stuart McIntosh, chair of the independent inquiry group said in a statement back in 2020: "The tie-up between Facebook and Giphy has already removed a potential challenger in the display advertising market. Without action, it will also allow Facebook to increase its significant market power in social media even further, through controlling competitors’ access to Giphy GIFs."
