--- title: "After losing an appeal in a UK antitrust dispute, Meta accepts the CMA's order to sell Giphy." description: "The United Kingdom's competition watchdog has once more ordered Meta to sell Giphy, a website for animated GIFs." author: "Muskan Singh" published: 2022-10-19 canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/news/2181/after-losing-an-appeal-in-a-uk-antitrust-dispute-meta-accepts-the-cma-s-order-to-sell-giphy category: "facebook" tags: ["facebook", "technology", "technology news", "metaverse"] reading_time: 3 minutes --- # After losing an appeal in a UK antitrust dispute, Meta accepts the CMA's order to sell Giphy. The decision comes after a 'stay of execution' for Meta this summer, when the **U.K.'s [Competition](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/23460/5-ways-you-can-use-competition-to-your-benefit) Appeal Tribunal remanded the matter to the antitrust watchdog to be reevaluated in response to a procedural finding that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)** had not given **Meta** representatives full, undisclosed access to documents related to its decision. \ However, the tribunal maintained the CMA's ruling on five of the six grounds for appeal, declaring that it had 'no hesitation' in coming to the conclusion that the regulator's [determination](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/88547/trump-s-meet-with-aides-ends-without-final-determination) that the merger severely decreased dynamic competition was legal. Therefore, no one should be shocked by the [news](https://www.mindstick.com/developersection/news) today. **The CMA's updated evaluation supports its prior conclusion that Meta's acquisition of Giphy will restrict [social media](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/13056/how-to-leverage-social-media-to-attract-lots-of-blog-traffic) users' options and hinder innovation in [display advertising](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/105629/why-use-display-advertising) in the UK.** The CMA stated that its [independent](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12905/fynsis-announce-suitecrm-customer-portal-independent-client-service-platform) panel spent the previous three months examining new submissions from Meta and Giphy as well as additional third-party material before reaching its judgement. According to the analysis, Meta might strengthen its already sizable market position by: • Changing the terms of access, such as requiring Giphy customers like TikTok, Twitter, and Snapchat to provide more data from U.K. users in order to access Giphy GIFs, which would force users to Meta-owned sites, which already account for **73% of user time spent on social media in the U.K.** Stuart McIntosh, the head of the independent inquiry committee conducting the remittal [investigation](https://www.mindstick.com/news/2149/twitter-claims-in-court-that-elon-musk-is-the-subject-of-government-investigations), noted in a statement: • In two markets, this agreement would drastically lessen competition. It has already eliminated a potential rival in the UK display ad industry while also enabling Meta to further expand its sizable market share in social media. **The sale of Giphy is the only option to address this. This will encourage new ideas in [digital advertising](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/105589/how-to-implement-geotargeting-in-digital-advertising) and guarantee that UK social media users will always have access to Giphy.** The CMA initially ordered Meta to unwind the acquisition of Giphy back in November 2021, almost a year after Meta had actually finished the transaction to buy Giphy in May 2020 for an alleged $400 million. When contacted for comment, **Meta** acknowledged that it would not be appealing the ruling. \ A spokeswoman issued a statement via email that read, 'We are disappointed by the CMA's judgement but accept today's ruling as the final word on the matter.' '**On divesting Giphy, we will cooperate closely with the CMA. During this uncertain period for their company, the Giphy crew has our gratitude and best wishes**.' --- Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/news/2181/after-losing-an-appeal-in-a-uk-antitrust-dispute-meta-accepts-the-cma-s-order-to-sell-giphy Copyright © MindStick Software Pvt. Ltd. This Markdown version is provided for developers, AI systems, and offline reading.