As the “Handelsblatt” reports, Edeka forced the court to force Coca-Cola to deliver its beverage brands to the Edeka branches again. The Hamburg Regional Court has decided that the US group must again supply the supermarket chain at the maximum purchase prices contractually agreed in January 2022 (AZ 415 HKO 72/22).
There had previously been a dispute about the purchasing conditions. Edeka was not ready to accept the (even) higher prices of the US group. For its part, Coca-Cola then stopped deliveries in September.
A spokesman for Edeka now welcomed the decision in the “Handelsblatt” and described the behavior of Coca-Cola as a “unilateral breach of contract”. He told the newspaper: “Dominant companies like Coca-Cola are forbidden by antitrust law.”
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However, it is unclear whether the verdict will endure – the US group will presumably exhaust all legal remedies. In addition, the judgment only obliges the group to deliver its drinks by the end of September on the agreed terms. A new dispute is therefore very likely.
