Meta and Giphy

US company Meta has applied for a review of the UK Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) decision to sell animated image service Giphy in order to comply with antitrust laws. This was announced by the regulator's appeals panel on Wednesday.

It is noted that Meta, formerly known as Facebook, plans to challenge the CMA's decision on six counts. In particular, the company disagreed with the allegation that the purchase of Giphy would lead to a "significant decrease in competition" in the market. In addition, Meta noted that the regulator's action was characterised by serious "procedural flaws".

Meta 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 the UK markets and called for the internet giant to cooperate to further examine the merger process. Meta responded to the demand by refusing, for which the CMA imposed a fine of £50.5m ($69.5m) in October 2021.

Following a review of the deal, the CMA found in November that the purchase of Giphy violated the interests of UK social media users and advertisers in terms of antitrust law.

According to the regulator, there is a possibility that Meta could restrict the service to its ecosystem in the future, which in turn would lead to a mass exodus of users from other social networks or require competitors to provide it with personal user data. CMA pointed to the need to sell Giphy to another buyer as the only viable solution to this problem.