This, however, only made up half of the CMA controversy. While warning of a decrease in competition among social networking sites, the supervisor immediately warned of the impact on the non-existent market. The CMA said Giphy had a chance to compete with Facebook in the UK advertising market if it was not purchased. “Prior to the merger, Giphy launched a series of promotional activities outside the US, including the UK,” the observer said in describing the GIFs that Pepsi and Dunkin ‘Donuts created to boost their sales.
“This is exciting,” said Peter Broadhurst, a partner at Crowell & Moring’s law firm, who said the CMA wanted to enter into an agreement with the two US companies as “expanders.” “Giphy was not making money in the UK,” he says. “But the CMA found evidence, not the strongest evidence by its statement, that it might have tried to sell the UK in the future, and found that ‘it is enough for us.’ that the UK superintendent, sponsored by Brexit, is ready to make its mark on the global antitrust stage, says Pepper. in particular, responding to small things. “
The decision did not come as a surprise. The CMA has been conducting an in-depth investigation into Giphy’s acquisition since April 2021. In September 2021, Facebook responded to the survey’s findings and questioned Britain’s commercial power in the document. published by the UK government. “Of course, at the moment, it’s easy,” he said on Facebook. “Facebook and Giphy are not competing in the UK, and there is no commercial involvement that raises concerns.”
Meta is now facing a growing threat where integration is represented by countries where the alliance has no major alliances, believes Tyler. He added that the European Union and its member states have begun to look at what is happening beyond their borders, pointing to Austria ‘s Meta submission of a Kustomer customer platform to the European Commission in March 2021. ” hence, many others are looking at how to prevent market disruption, “says Tyler.
For a supervisor in another country to block an agreement where the companies involved come from another is strange but has never happened. In 2001, the European Union banned Boston-based General Electric from acquiring another US company, Honeywell. In 2018, China’s comments undermined the idea of US semiconductor Qualcomm to swallow its Dutch counterpart NXP. In May 2021, airline software companies Saber and Farelogix failed to appeal against the CMA’s decision to ban their merger, even though Farelogix had no UK customers or refunds.