Facebook has earned another $ 70 million fine

Facebook moves quite awkwardly in the field of customer data protection. And when buying companies used for its development, it seems, it is no different. This time, the British regulator is in office and fines antitrust violations.

Buy Giphy

Giphy, which introduced a simple search engine for GIF animations in 2013, had quite a remarkable growth. It would probably become a regular part of a web browser, however Once her services began using Facebook and Twitter, came a rocketing growth in her value. Today’s traffic and search engine usage is made up 50% thanks to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. It mainly operates on these connected platforms. And since it’s important for Facebook to invest, for $ 400 million has decided to actually already buy home developers. As is the case in large acquisitions, they are always supervised and must be approved.

In the case of the purchase, Giphy ran out patience to UK regulator and fines Facebook $ 70 million for withholding transaction information. The report even states that, for the first time in history, the audited entity refused to issue and provide information about the transaction. However, this is probably not exceptional for Facebook, given the many other missteps that the company has gone through. The acquisition control has been going on for many months, and fears that Giphy’s Facebook will tend to reduce competition in the market and thus affect competition have been going on for just as long.

The fine itself did not arise from day to day, the inspection body tried repeatedly to ask Facebook to provide information to assess the acquisition, without success. The company even let it be heard that full cooperation with the British authorities was the only way to get Gipha’s purchase approved. The reality, as we are unfortunately used to, is exactly the opposite for Facebook.

Although the amount of $ 70 million is the main topic, it is not the only mistake and the only fine imposed by the inspection body. Without the consent of the regulatory body, Facebook has replaced a person who is to control and supervise the entire process. And how much it is necessary for the exchange With the consent of just the British authorities, this charade will cost Facebook another £ 500,000.

The question has long been on the table whether high fines are enough to deter a company like Facebook? Failure to comply with the rules in many cases is proving to be an example of the fact that millions of dollars are simply not enough. Facebook is sensitive to only one indicator, and that is the movement of advertising revenues and the interest of advertisers in its services. If this attribute is not shaken even after such overstepping, the fine seems to be a secondary question of what Facebook is dealing with. In the first place remains the interest he wants to achieve. And that is the control of Gipha in this case.