Pepsi’s antitrust complaint brings $54 million levy
Mexico’s antitrust commission has hit Coca-Cola and its bottlers with a $54 million fine in response to 5-year-old complaints by rival Pepsico that it used exclusive deals with stores to shut out competitors.
If it sticks, the fine would be one of the largest ever levied against the Coke system for anti-competitive violations.
Coke said it plans to appeal. If the company loses, it will be responsible for about $1 million of the fine. Six bottlers are responsible for the rest, and each would decide on its own whether to appeal, said Coke spokesman Ben Deutsch.
Pepsi’s complaints in Mexico, which Coke has repeatedly denied, were first registered in 2000.
In February 2002, the country’s La Comision Federal de Competencia ruled against Coke. However, that ruling was overturned because of a procedural issue. The most recent ruling and fine, which were issued Friday, stemmed from the second investigation.
Mexican Coke firms fined for strong-arm tactics
Mexico's competition watchdog upheld on Thursday fines totaling almost $15 million against 15 Coca-Cola (KO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) bottlers and distributors for forcing shops to sell only their soft drinks.
The distributors, many owned by Mexico-based Coca-Cola Femsa (KOF.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (KOFL.MX: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's No. 2 Coke bottler, as well as the Coca-Cola Export Corp., owned by Coca-Cola Co. (KO.N: Quote, Profile, Research), were fined about $1 million each for insisting that stores in Mexico only sell Coke brand products and not competitors' drinks.
The Federal Competition Commission said the
MEXICO: Coke fined by competition authority
Coca-Cola’s Mexican subsidiary and some of its bottlers have been fined US$15m after failing to convince Mexico's competition watchdogs that it had not broken trade laws.
The Federal Competition Commission upheld a fine imposed on Coke and its bottlers for allegedly pressurising small shops into refusing to stock other brands of cola.
The Commission received a complaint from Raquel Chavez in 2003. She accused a Coca-Cola distributor of refusing to sell to her small shop because she had started stocking the rival brand Big Cola.
Big Cola, a Peruvian-based supplier of cheap-end colas, joined the action against Coca-Cola.
Fines against Coca-Cola in Mexico upheld
Mexico's federal competition commission has upheld a $15 million fine against Coca-Cola's Mexican subsidiary for anti-competitive practices.
The commission began investigating the company when a complaint was made in 2003 by Raquel Chavez, a Mexican shopkeeper. Ms Chavez claimed that her Coca-Cola supplier refused to sell to her shop when she began to stock a rival brand, Big Cola. The complaint led to the commission finding other similar incidents.
The fines have been imposed on 15 of the distributors and bottlers of Coca-Cola in the region and will be a victory for Ajegroup, the maker
U.S. liquor bottlers took a shot at Mexican tequila and won.
Tequila trade talks ended on Tuesday with Mexican officials agreeing to allow U.S. distributors and bottlers to continue importing the libation in bulk for bottling later in the United States.
Nearly two years ago, Mexican government officials accused U.S. bottlers of adding lower-cost alcohol and selling the blend as "tequila." They threatened to require that the spirit be bottled in one of the five Mexican states that make up the tequila region. It's in these states of Jalisco, Guanajuato, Nayarit, Michoacan and Tamaulipas where the blue agave plant is cultivated
FIFA Slaps Mexico Football with Heavy Fines for Doping
Football's (soccer's) world governing body FIFA has fined the Mexican football federation after two of its players were expelled from last month's Confederations Cup in Germany following positive doping tests.
In a statement Wednesday, FIFA said it fined the Mexican Federation more than $583,000 after Aaron Galindo and Salvador Carmona tested positive for the steroid nandrolone.
The Mexican Federation tested the players before the tournament, which began on June 15. However, the men were not expelled until June 22, after they played in Mexico's 2-1 victory over Japan and 1-0 win over
In Mexico, Taking Fizz Out of the Cola Giants
The founders of the upstart cola maker Ajegroup know a thing or two about guerrilla marketing.
When Shining Path rebels took to hijacking Coca-Cola Co. trucks in the late 1980s during Peru's civil war, the Ananos family started peddling its own line of soft drinks in recycled beer bottles to meet local demand. Today the company controls more than one-fifth of the cola market in Peru.
Ajegroup is still taking potshots at Coke, but the battle has shifted north to Mexico, where the Peruvians are once again making gains through unorthodox methods. In a
Mexico's Femsa 4th-qtr net profit falls 14 pct
Mexico's Femsa, Latin America' largest beverage company, posted a 14 percent drop in fourth-quarter net profit due to the absence of tax benefits it enjoyed a year earlier.
Femsa, which runs the world's No. 2 Coke bottler and also brews Tecate and Sol beers, said on Monday its net for the October-December period was 1.661 billion pesos ($156 million) down from 1.929 billion pesos a year before.
Femsa's shares (FEMSAUBD.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 1.08 percent on Friday to 87.13 pesos. Its American Depositary Receipts (FMX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) moved up 1.32 percent to $83.16.
Mexico aims new law at old profession
She arrived at the clinic at noon, dark sunglasses covering her eyes and a baseball cap pulled down low. She clutched a small pink book with her picture stapled inside. The dates of her examinations for venereal diseases were stamped in inks of various colors, like a passport.
Her name is Olga, and like thousands of other women in this town, she works as a prostitute, recruiting clients at a topless bar. These days, however, unless she is tested every month at a government clinic and has the right stamps in her booklet,
Mexico should enact immigration reform
MEXI-CO President Vicente Fox has spent much of his international political capital fighting the U.S. House bill passed last December that proposes felon status for illegal immigrants in the United States.
Too bad illegal immigrants in his own land - mostly Central American migrants on their way to the United States - are already treated as criminals. Under a 32-year-old Mexican law, people who have crossed into Mexico illegally can be penalized with two to five years in prison, although the punishment is rarely imposed.
Three legislators, all members of Foxs National Action Party, are working
'Priceless' artifacts are returned to Mexico
Three caches of pre-Columbian artifacts seized at the U.S.-Mexico border were returned to Mexico last week, including objects believed washed away by rain from the El Tajin ruins near Veracruz.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials returned the 140 stone figurines and other objects to Deputy Mexican Consul Ernesto Herrera at a news conference Thursday at the Hidalgo International Bridge.
The items were seized in 2004 during two inspections at the Rio Grande City port of entry and one inspection at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge.
During one inspection, CBP agents found 104 artifacts in a suitcase. The
