London: Britain’s competition regulator has fined social media platform Facebook $694 million (£505 million) for breaching rules. According to the regulator, this fine has been imposed for violation of rules during the investigation related to the purchase of the online database company ‘Giffy’ by Facebook.
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Facebook had failed to provide the necessary information during the investigation. Several warnings were given to the social media company, but it seems that it deliberately made mistakes in complying with the rules. The authority said this is the first time a company has been found to be in violation of the preliminary enforcement order by knowingly refusing to provide the information necessary.
It said Facebook has been fined £50 million for violating the order and £500,000 for twice replacing its chief compliance officer without consent.
Joel Bamford, senior director (mergers) at CMA, said in a statement, “We warned Facebook that refusing to provide us with important information was in violation of the order. But Facebook continued to defy its legal obligations despite losing appeals in this regard in two different courts. The same Facebook has said that it will consider options after reviewing this decision.
