Facebook fined nearly $70M for breaching Giphy order – CNET [CNET]

Britain’s competition regulator on Wednesday fined Facebook £50.5 million ($69.6 million) for failing to comply with an order imposed during its investigation into the social network’s purchase of Giphy. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) probed the acquisition due to concerns that it’d harm competition in the social media and digital advertising markets. 

Facebook purchased Giphy for a reported $400 million in May 2020, saying its team would join Instagram. 

The company failed to provide full updates showing its compliance with a CMA order that it continue to compete with the GIF platform and avoid further integration while the investigation was ongoing. The watchdog said Facebook’s failure to comply was deliberate, since it was given multiple warnings.

“This should serve as a warning to any company that thinks it is above the law,” Joel Bamford, the CMA’s senior director of mergers, said in a release.

Facebook strongly disagreed with the CMA’s “unfair decision,” a spokesperson said in a statement emailed to CNET, and noted that it’ll consider its options.