UK Forces Meta To Stop Forced Sale Of Giphy
The UK Competition Court of Appeal suspended Meta’s claim to sell Giphy. The case has been sent for review; the court ruled that the competition regulator, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), did not provide Meta with a full set of documents related to the decision.
Meta acquired Giphy, a platform for creating and sharing GIF animations that are actively used in social networks and instant messengers, in May 2020 for $315 million. The company planned to integrate the platform with Instagram. Last November, the CMA ordered Meta to sell Giphy following its own investigation. The regulator concluded that the deal could harm competition in the advertising market and social networks.
Since then, Meta* has been trying to appeal the decision to sell. Notably, the Court of Appeal upheld all other aspects of the CMA’s decision, agreeing, in particular, with the view that Giphy’s merger with Meta* was against the principles of competition.
However, the court’s decision means that CMA’s demand to sell Giphy is suspended, and the order under which the demand was made is now “preliminary” and must be reviewed after the submission of the necessary documentation.
