Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB), the owner of Facebook, has been fined £1.5mln by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The competition watchdog has fined the user data harvesting juggernaut for the second time, this time for failing to alert it in advance of key departures while a merger investigation is in progress.
“The @CMAgovUK issued its final decision in relation to the @Meta and @Giphy #merger on 30 November 2021. This required Meta to sell Giphy in its entirety after finding the deal could harm social media users and UK advertisers.” #antitrust #competition #Facebook
— Mark Warner (@MAAWLAW) February 4, 2022
The CMA said Meta failed to inform it in advance of the resignation of three key employees and the reallocation of their roles. These three individuals had previously been included on a list of key staff provided to the CMA by Meta, reflecting their importance.
“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,” griped Joel Bamford, the senior director of mergers at the CMA.
“Initial enforcement orders are an integral part of our mergers toolkit and ensure the CMA is able to take effective action if we find competition concerns. Breaches like this one threaten our ability to maintain the benefits of competition for people using these products and services,” he added.
Meta was fined £50.5mln in October of last year by the CMA for breaching an order imposed by the CMA during its investigation into Facebook’s purchase of Giphy Inc.
The CMA has instructed Facebook to unwind the takeover of Giphy, having concluded that Facebook’s ownership of the company “may give rise to competition concerns in both the supply of display advertising in the UK, and in the supply of social media services worldwide (including in the UK)”.
Fun fact:
Facebook has lost more than $200 billion of market cap with the crash after earnings.
The market cap it lost is larger than all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin and Ethereum.#Bitcoin #ETH #Facebook #Meta
— Benedict Goh (@thebenedictgoh) February 4, 2022
Facebook is contesting the ruling but today’s fine is small beer compared to the cataclysmic share price reaction yesterday into the US that user numbers on Facebook have declined for the first time in the social media platform’s 18-year history.
READ Facebook owner Meta's valuation plunges US$200bn as user numbers fall for first time
The company saw US$200bn lopped off its market capitalisation in a single day.
On this day: February 4th, 2004
Facebook was launched by Mark Zuckerberg ????#facebook #socialmedia #MarkZuckerberg #meta pic.twitter.com/aeADJqt5Cr
— FRESHCODE (@FreshCode1) February 4, 2022