The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of the United Kingdom government fined Facebook 50.5 million pounds for allegedly breaching an order imposed by the authority during its investigation of Facebook's merger with Giphy, a USA-based online database and search engine that allows users to search for and share short looping videos (GIFs). The order that Facebook allegedly breached is an initial enforcement order (IEO) that is imposed on companies during the start of an investigation into a completed acquisition. An IEO essentially ensures that companies continue to compete with each other as they would without the merger, and prevent the companies involved from integrating further while a merger is ongoing, said a release by the office of CMA. Facebook has been in the eye of the storm recently ever since Frances Haugen, a former FB employee-turned whistleblower, submitted eight complaints based on troves of internal documents to the US' Securities and Exchanges Commission claiming wrongdoings and malpractices by the social media platform in its various processes. Closer home, Facebook and WhatsApp have been embroiled in a court battle with the Competition Commission of India, after the CCI in March this year, took up a suo motu investigation to ascertain "the full extent, scope and impact" of data sharing under WhatsApp's new privacy policy and terms of use. How did Facebook breach the order? The CMA said that Facebook, as part of the investigation initiated on June 9, 2020, was required to provide CMA with regular updates outlining its compliance with…
