Meta to Pay New $2 Million UK Fine

Britain's competition regulator fined Facebook-owner Meta (FB.O) 1.5 million pounds ($2 million) over fresh issues regarding its purchase of Giphy.

On Friday, the CMA stated that Meta had failed to comply with certain aspects of its requirements in regard to the handling of Giphy. It also noted that the U.S. firm had failed to notify the UK regulator that key staff had left Meta.

The CMA described this step as a "serious and particularly flagrant nature of Meta's failure to comply" with rules it set to make sure the two firms were still competing with each other, and do not integrate, while the regulator investigated the deal.

Accordingly, the tech giant said it did not agree with the CMA's latest fine but would pay it, noting that it could not prevent staff from leaving the company.

"We intend to pay the fine, but it is problematic that the CMA can take decisions that could directly impact the rights of our U.S. employees protected under U.S. law," a spokesperson said.