pay us$3.1 billion. at issue were zantac and other products sold in 1989–2005. the case revolved around intracompany transfer pricing—determining the share of profit attributable to the us subsidiaries of gsk and subject to tax by the irs. the uk's serious fraud office (sfo) opened a criminal inquiry in 2014 into gsk's sales practices, using powers granted by the bribery act 2010. the sfo said it was collaborating with chinese authorities to investigate bringing charges in the uk related to gsk's activities in china, europe and the middle east. also as of 2014, the us department of justice was investigating gsk with reference to the foreign corrupt practices act. in october 2020, gsk told some staff that while at work they should disable the contact tracing function of the nhs test-and-trace app which monitors the spread of covid-19. gsk explained the reason for this was due to social distancing measures in place at their sites rendering the technology unnecessary.