Market Loop - 👎UK regulator fines Facebook £51m

TECH
UK regulator fines Facebook £51m

What’s going on?
Another week, another run in between Facebook and regulators. This time round the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has fined the social media giant £51m for breaching an order imposed during an investigation into its acquisition of GIF platform Giphy.

Why is this important?

Giphy is one of the largest GIF sites on the internet, offering tools for creating and sharing animated images (popular here at Market Loop). Its user-uploaded library of GIFs is already integrated and used widely by Facebook's family of social media apps but can also be used on other platforms such as Twitter.

Facebook announced it was buying Giphy for $400m in 2020 but since then CMA has launched an investigation into the deal. It's concerned that Facebook could behave anti-competitively and hurt consumers by cutting off the supply of GIFs to rivals and demanding more data from Giphy’s customers to keep using the service.

The CMA said Facebook “deliberately” refused to supply information proving that it was complying with orders it put in place as part of the investigation.

These orders include keeping Facebook separate from Giphy until the CMA concludes on the deal. The CMA said the £51m fine served as a warning that no company was above the law.

Takeaway
It seems like not a week goes by without Facebook getting into trouble with regulators and governments around the world over its business practices. The company said it strongly disagreed with the CMA’s ruling and it would consider its options.

LUXURY
Burberry bags a new boss from Versace

Burberry has appointed Jonathan Akeroyd to be its new CEO. He will replace Marco Gobbetti, who announced in June that he would step down and head to Italy to run luxury group Salvatore Ferragamo.

It’s clear to see why Akeroyd was chosen. The Brit has held several senior roles at major luxury brands. Burberry poached him from rival fashion house Versace where he was CEO for five years. Prior to that he spent over a decade at Alexander McQueen leading the company through the aftermath of the death of its namesake founder. He also worked at luxury department store Harrods.

Akeroyd will receive a £6m “golden hello” to cover the loss of bonus and share awards for leaving his position at Versace. He is also set to be paid a base salary of £1.1m, with a maximum annual bonus worth up to 200% of his base, and a share plan worth 162.5% of annual salary.

Shares in Burberry fell by 10% when outgoing CEO Gobbetti - credited with turning around Burberry's fortunes over his four-year spell, announced he was leaving. Yesterday shares closed up 2% following the announcement of Akeroyd’s appointment. He will join Burberry on 1 April next year.