Comment by gnfargbl | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gnfargbl | Hacker News Reader

I'm really confused as to why the CMA had a say in this matter at all. Meta and Giphy are/were both US companies. OK, they do business in the UK, but they do business in a lot of other places too.

If the competition regulator for the Federated States of Micronesia had an issue with this acquisition and wanted to block it, would Meta abide by their ruling? If not, how big does a country have to be before their competition regulator is allowed to interfere in mergers between foreign-owned companies?

Also, if the US has a problem with a merger between two UK companies, do we in the UK have to abide by their ruling? What about if it is France rather than the US? What if it's Russia?

>Also, if the US has a problem with a merger between two UK companies, do we in the UK have to abide by their ruling?

If the UK business wants to do business in the US... yes.

>What about if it is France rather than the US?

Yes.

>What if it's Russia?

Yes.

Companies must comply with local laws if they wish to conduct business in those countries.

For example, countries may dictate requirements on the telecommunications products sold in their own countries. This is the one of the reasons my UK-sold iPhone has an FCC certification (and even Russian and Belarusian certifications) and iPhones in the US might have CE or UKCA certifications.

This applies to less portable products, too: my Philips Hue bulbs have CE markings even though I'm not in the EU.

If you want to do business in a market, you have to follow the market's rules.

So it's essentially a set of parallel games of chicken between played out between the companies and regulators ("do what we say or we fine you" / "let us do what we want or we leave")?

I guess that's workable, but it seems an unusual solution in a rules-based world.

If you don't abide, you get penalties, from fines to being banned from the market. It's up to each company whether they accept that risk or not.

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