The Coca-Cola Company Struggles with Ethical Crises Essay

The Coca-Cola Company Struggles with Ethical Crises - Essay Example The Belgian government ordered Coca-Cola to recall all its products, a move that was also witnessed in the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Coca-Cola at first underestimated the gravity of the matter, and took several days before correcting the situation or even going to the press about the issue. As a result of this delay, other people continued to suffer from the contaminated products, which had been determined to be the result of a consignment of carbon dioxide that had been improperly processed. France also reported about a hundred people had become ill after consuming coke, which led to all Coca-Cola products being banned from the country (Ferrell, Ferrell & Fraedrich ,2011) . The situation escalated and culminated in December the same year, when Belgium ordered Coca-Cola to halt a campaign it had launched to re-introduce its products in the country. Coca-Cola market eminence in Europe reduced significantly after this scandal, due to the incapability of the corporation to handle the cases professionally and with the seriousness they deserved. Coca-Cola was also accused of unfair competition in the international arena especially in European countries. In 1999, Coca-Cola sought to expand its market in France by trying to purchase a beverage company. The government intervened and stopped Coca-Cola from acquiring the company, under the antitrust laws of the European Union. Other countries such as Italy also accused Coca-Cola of anticompetitive prices and won a case against the company on the same. Other companies such as Pepsi also accused Coca-Cola of using discounts and refunds to get more consumers, something that was against European laws. Allegations of racial discrimination also plagued the Coca-Cola Company in 1999, after about 1500 employees of African-American descent sued the company on grounds of racial discrimination. The employees complained that favoritism was evident, in terms of payment, performance analysis and promotion. These allegations caused a lot of unrest in the company, and Coca-Cola had to pay 193 million dollars to settle the case (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011). Another case was in store for Coca-Cola, when it was accused of shipping more inventories to its supplies before a quarter was over, against business law. Afterwards, the company would count the shipments as sales, despite such goods remaining in the warehouses or being returned. These sales were then counted as revenue, thus creating the impression of a strong company, therefore, fooling investors who believed the inflated profits. Distributors of Coca-Cola products in the U.S sued the company in early 2006, after the company started using delivery agents to supply its products to warehouses. This move according to the distributors was against antitrust laws, and Coca-Cola had to find a way to settle this dispute. In Colombia, accusations surfaced between 2001 and 2004 that Coca-Cola had been intimidating its employees since 1989. Statistics showed that eight w orkers had died, 48 forced into hiding, and 65 issued with death threats in the Colombian bottling plant. The workers union sought compensation for the affected families, although Coca-Cola maintains that these allegations were unfounded. In India, the Coca-Cola subsidiary was accused of using contaminated ground water to make soft drinks, resulting in excess levels of pesticides in these drinks. In addition to this,