Bulgaria fines Coca-Cola for illegal promotions
ruling to fine the local branch of Coca-Cola leva 20, 000 ($13,400)
for using illicit promotional methods.
The court said that the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company Bulgaria broke local law on competition through the promotion of a game in which it offered awards for customers who would collect and send back to the company ten bottle caps.
The awards included compact discs with music, a free trip for two to Detroit and tickets for a concert of rap singer Eminem and a vacation for two in Ibiza, Spain.
The ruling mirrors Coca-Cola's recent settlement of a five-year European Union antitrust case, in which the corporation promised to scrap controversial retail discounts and agreed to share more display space with rivals.
The settlement was designed to increase competition in the European carbonated-soft-drink market, where Coke still holds a near-50 per cent share. PepsiCo, which complained to the EU about Coke's sales and marketing practices in the late 1990s, has less than 10 per cent.
The agreement is likely to apply in 27 EEA countries and in all channels of distribution where the carbonated soft drinks of Coca-Cola account for over 40 per cent of national sales and twice the nearest competitor's share. It will take more than 12 months to fully implement the undertaking and for the market to react to any resulting changes.
The Bulgaria ruling is therefore just one of several unpleasant episodes that the soft drinks group has had to experience in recent months. The company has also had to deal with the discovery of higher than permitted levels of the chemical bromate in samples of its bottled water brand, Dasani in the UK earlier in the year.
