Clifford Chance

Competition and Markets Authority fines Facebook £50.5 million for repeated breaches of Initial Enforcement Order

9 February 2022

This article explores the CMA's decision in October 2021 to impose a fine of £50.5 million on Facebook for breach of an Initial Enforcement Order (IEO) in relation to its acquisition of GIPHY. Facebook's breaches included repeated failures to submit compliance statements to the CMA or notify it of changes to key staff and organisational structures. The decision serves as a warning to merger parties who seek to unilaterally limit the terms of IEOs, which the CMA notes are to have a similar effect to the suspensory nature of mandatory merger control regimes. Since this article was written, the CMA has found that the completed acquisition gives rise to competition concerns and has ordered Facebook to sell GIPHY.

The authors are Alex Nourry, Partner, Daniel Harrison, Knowledge Director, Antitrust Practice and Jordan Bernstein, Trainee Solicitor.

This article was first published by Thomson Reuters, trading as Sweet & Maxwell, 5 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AQ in the European Competition Law Review as "Competition and Markets Authority fines Facebook £50.5 million for repeated breaches of Initial Enforcement Order" in [E.C.L.R. 2022, 43(2) N44-N46] and is reproduced by agreement with the publishers.

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