Coca-Cola Halts Investment In France To Protest New "Soda Tax"

Worldcrunch:

PARIS - Coca-Cola has suspended a planned €17 million ($24 million) investment in France as a "symbolic protest" against a French government plan to impose a new tax on sugary drinks.

Read the whole story: Worldcrunch

Comments

[nfatt1]

09:53 AM on 09/12/2011

Memo to Coke executives, the French drink wine.

[paddlerchick]

08:22 AM on 09/12/2011

They are going to take their high fructose corn syrup and go home? I doubt it.

[El Justiciero]

08:47 AM on 09/12/2011

What I love about Europe is they don't have high fructose corn syrup in their coke & other softdrinks. That crap's just for us! At any rate, I hope France doesn't cave.

[HansB]

02:51 PM on 09/11/2011

Sarkozy launched a plan to get French public finances back in order, and many (most?) of his proposals have been withdrawn due to lobbyist pressure.

The plan to tax sodas, by contrast, has not been withdrawn, because Coca Cola overdid it. Its overt blackmail was disastrous PR. The company has been all over the place weeping about the "misunderstanding" and saying that of course it will stick to its investment plans (libération.fr of two days ago).

So not only is this old news, but it features a lobbying attempt... that failed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not impressed with WorldCrunch.

[AbstractImp]

09:38 AM on 09/11/2011

You see?
Once they get in. . .

[mamacat]

05:32 AM on 09/11/2011

I suspect that the benefit to the health of French children will be worth far, far more than the 17 million euros Pepsi was going to spend.

[Vcubed]

11:31 PM on 09/10/2011

Every time a corporation tries something like this, the government involved should give them a beatdown.

[dragongal]

07:57 PM on 09/10/2011

France should ban cocola completely....See who win

[GrahamInCanada]

11:57 PM on 09/09/2011

sometimes you just have to scratch your head...

France wants their citizens to drink less soft drinks, and adds a tax to make them more expensive...

I'd think the producer, wanting to counter, would lower costs and their unit price to match the new tax, to encourage the French to continue or increase consumption...

I wouldn't think that the producer would counter with a promise not to increase production and not to lower costs and to assist the government in its goals...

Sounds like the French hit two birds with their one stone...

[Hajnal]

07:11 AM on 09/09/2011

...except they did not halt this investment in the end. Seeing how other lobbyists had managed to get the government to reduce the taxes on amusement parks and sales of secondary residences that were initially part of the same deficit reduction package, they thought they could do the same.
Unfortunately for them, they soon realized that unlike the US, the year before a presidential election is the not the right time for corporations to put pressure on the government, even a corporate and lobby-friendly government like Sarkozy's, as French voters do not take kindly to politicians doing the companies' bidding.

[castlemike]

02:38 PM on 09/09/2011

A Coca-Cola executive confirmed to Le Monde that the American beverage giant would halt plans to add a production line to its Pennes-Mirabeau plant in southern France, in direct response to the government proposal announced last month.

[Hajnal]

03:03 AM on 09/10/2011

...and another one confirmed it was all a misunderstanding and that they would go on with the investment:

http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2011/09/08/coca-cola-dement-suspendre-ses-investissements-en-france_1569665_3234.html

[Eagleman]

09:47 PM on 09/08/2011

As if the French cares for Soda

[Jack Daniels Esq]

06:24 PM on 09/08/2011

What possible nutritional value is there in Coke ?

[ca va pas non]

10:29 PM on 09/08/2011

Wow a comment void of Muslim bashing ... impressed ....

[Jack Daniels Esq]

04:43 AM on 09/09/2011

Y'all imbibing on that muslim plonk again .....?

[MIKEinNYC]

05:15 PM on 09/08/2011

I don't think the French would like it much if we imposed a tax on their wines, cheeses and especially those needless bottled waters, of which they are a major purveyor.

[Hajnal]

07:12 AM on 09/09/2011

What do you think the US has been doing for years, and what a surprising coincidence, especially after 2003?

[seegray]

07:58 PM on 09/09/2011

But, here's the deal....there are health benefits to wine.

Name one health benefit of Coca-cola.

[MIKEinNYC]

09:10 PM on 09/09/2011

It tastes good. It makes me smile. Smiling is healthy and makes me friends.

[xoloitzcuintle]

02:14 PM on 09/08/2011

Coca Cola decides not to build another assembly line and this is a bad thing?

[ca va pas non]

10:32 PM on 09/08/2011

They have no prayer playing chicken with the French market, not in this economy. They will pay and still make money.