Demands from the UK regulator

To protect the interests of community media service providers and advertisers in the UK, the UK CMA invited US-based meta-platforms to sell its animated image service Giphy. The UK regulator announced this on Tuesday.

"If Facebook sells Giphy's service, it will protect millions of social media users and help them compete in the digital advertising market," said Stuart McIntosh, the CMA's independent expert committee.

The CMA said the acquisition of US internet giant eliminated potential competitors in digital advertising on Sunday by eliminating this segment after purchase.

In addition, UK experts fear that Meta Platforms will decide to restrict the service to its ecosystem, which will lead to a mass exodus of users from other social networks, or require competitors to provide it with personal user data in exchange for the use of Giphy's capabilities. The UK regulator sees the only acceptable solution to this problem as selling the animated image service to a CMA-approved buyer.

Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) acquired the US service Giphy in 2020. Portal Axios valued the deal at $400 million. In March 2021, the UK competition regulator ruled that the deal could lead to a significant decrease in competition in UK markets and called for the US internet giant to cooperate in further examining the merger process. Meta Platforms responded to the demand by refusing, for which the CMA imposed a fine of 50.5 million pounds ($69.5 million) in October 2021.