CMA fines Facebook for breach of initial enforcement order

 

 

The Competition and Markets Authority has imposed a £50.5 million penalty on Facebook, Inc for failure, without reasonable excuse, to comply with an initial enforcement order (IEO) in relation to its review of the completed acquisition by Facebook of Giphy, Inc.

Facebook was required to provide the CMA with regular updates on compliance as part of the CMA’s merger investigation.  Despite repeated warnings, Facebook significantly reduced the scope of those updates.

The penalty is the highest imposed for breach of an interim enforcement order since the current system was introduced in April 2014.  The CMA considers that Facebook’s breach was deliberate.

In July 2020, the CMA imposed a fine of £300,000 on Pentland and JD Sports for breach of an initial enforcement order.  This penalty notice was withdrawn following an appeal.

The CMA has also fined Facebook £500,000 for changing its Chief Compliance Officer on two separate occasions without seeking the CMA’s prior consent.

The size of the penalty on Facebook shows that the CMA will not hesitate to enforce its increasingly tougher stance on breach of procedural requirements including compliance with information requests in its merger and antitrust investigations.

CMA fines Facebook over enforcement order breach - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)