On 10 March 2025, the European Commission undertook surprise inspections at various non-alcoholic beverage companies, including Coca-Cola bottlers, across multiple EU member states. This action stems from concerns regarding potential trade restrictions and market division practices, violating EU laws against cartels and abusing market power.
In February 2023, EU antitrust authorities had previously halted an investigation into alleged anti-competitive activities involving The Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Coca-Cola Hellenic, due to insufficient evidence.
The European Commission said that it had initiated a preliminary investigation because it worried that the three companies might have exploited their market dominance by providing conditional rebates to retailers in select EU countries, aiming to prevent new beverage entrants from entering the market.
As part of this process, the Commission gathered information from Coca-Cola, its bottlers, retailers, and competitors. Following its review, the Commission determined that there was inadequate evidence to continue the investigation. They clarified that closing the investigation does not equate to affirming that any actions were compliant with EU competition law.
The recent raids suggest that new evidence may have emerged, prompting this renewed scrutiny.
