The UK Competition Authority imposes a record-breaking £50.5M fine on a Big Tech company for multiple and serious breaches of an Interim Enforcement Order imposed as part of an investigation into the company’s acquisition of an online provider of GIFs (Facebook / Giphy)

On 20 October 2021, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) announced its decision to impose a record-breaking fine of £ 50.5 million on Facebook, for multiple (and serious) breaches of an Interim Enforcement Order (“IEO”) imposed as part of the CMA’s investigation into the tech company’s completed acquisition of Giphy (an online provider of animated images and stickers (“GIFs”). Although just the latest development in a long-running and highly adversarial case that has already had many unusual features (see VBB on Competition Law, Volume 2021, No. 4), the nature and size of this fine are particularly significant – and should, as the CMA rather ominously puts it, “serve as a warning to any company that thinks it is above the law”. Background Facebook acquired Giphy in May