Europese Commissie rondt anti-trust onderzoek tegen Coca-Cola in Europa af (en)

dinsdag 19 oktober 2004

The European Commission today received commitments from The Coca-Cola Company regarding its business practices in the European Union. Commissioner Monti considers that the commitments are sufficient for a settlement decision, which will close a five-year probe. They will bring more competition to the European market for carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) and increase consumer choice in shops and at cafés. The commitments will be published for third-party comments before becoming final. This is only the second[1] draft settlement decision to be reached since a new EU Antitrust Regulation came into force last May and the first one to apply Europe wide.

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"The commitments entered into by Coca-Cola will level the playing field in the carbonated soft drinks markets in Europe. Thanks to the Commission's action consumers will generally have more choice at cafés, pubs and shops and will, therefore, be in a position to choose on the basis of price and personal preferences rather than pick up a Coca-Cola product because it's the only one on offer," said Competition Commissioner Mario Monti.

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The commitments were presented at a meeting today in Brussels by Coca-Cola Chairman Neville Isdell in the name of his company and of the three major anchor Coca-Cola bottlers. The commitments foresee:

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  • No more exclusivity arrangements. At all times, Coca-Cola customers will remain free to buy and sell carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) from any supplier of their choice. Obviously, where large, private sector customers and public authorities organise a competitive tender for their supplies and Coca-Cola provides the best offer, it can be the only CSD supplier.
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  • No target and growth rebates. Coca-Cola will no longer offer any rebates that reward its customers purely for purchasing the same amount or more of Coca-Cola's products than in the past. This should make it easier for Coca-Cola's customers to purchase from other CSD suppliers if they so wish.
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  • No use of Coca-Cola's strongest brands to sell less popular products. Coca-Cola will not require that a customer that only wants to buy one or more of its best-selling brands (e.g Coke regular or Fanta Orange) also has to purchase other Coca-Cola products such as its Sprite or its Vanilla Coke.

Similarly, Coca-Cola will no longer offer a rebate to its customers if the customer commits to buy these other products together with its best-selling products or to reserve shelf space for the entire group of products.

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  • 20% of free space in Coca-Cola's coolers. Where Coca-Cola provides a free cooler and there is no other chilled beverage capacity in the outlet to which the consumer has a direct access, the outlet operator will be free to use at least 20% of the cooler provided by Coca-Cola for any product of its choosing.

The Coca-Cola commitments will be published in the EU's Official Journal. If their robustness is confirmed, they will become binding on the company through a so-called "commitment decision". If Coca-Cola were to breach the commitment decision later, a fine could be imposed.

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The possibility to make voluntary commitments binding on a company was introduced by Article 9 of the new Antitrust Regulation (1/2003) which entered into force in May.

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[1] See IP/04/1110, of 17 September 2004 ("New cartel procedure used for the first time for the liberalisation of the central marketing of Bundesliga rights")

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