Coke settles 'channel stuffing' lawsuit for $137.5 million

Posted Jul 7th 2008 4:04PM by Michael Fowlkes
Filed under: International Markets, Deals, Law, Competitive Strategy, Coca-Cola (KO), Japan

It was announced today that soft drink giant Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) had settled an almost 8-year-old lawsuit today for $137.5 million. The case originated back in October of 2000, and alleged that the company had artificially boosted its strike price in 1999.

According to the lawsuit, back in late 1999 Coca Cola applied pressure to some of its bottlers to buy unnecessary beverage concentrate. By adding "hundreds of millions of dollars" to the books, the company was allegedly able to report much higher sales volumes to its shareholders and keep its stock price artificially inflated. This practice is typically referred to as "channel surfing".

Despite the fact that the company decided to settle, there was definitely no admission to any wrongdoing. A company representative stated that the decision to go ahead and settle out was merely a move meant to avoid any length and drawn out legal battle, and by no means should be viewed as any admission of guilt in the charges.

This is not the first time that the soft drink company has been under fire, and back in 2005 they settled charges similar to these with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). In this situation, the company was under fire for shipping excess concentrate to Japan between 1997 and 1999, the same activity that was under scrutiny in the current legal investigation. Once again, the company admitted no wrongdoing, and this time was not forced to pay any fines, only to agree to never again commit any future securities violations and maintain tight internal controls on sales.

So check your historical purchases of Coca Cola and see if you could be effected by today's settlement. It applies to anyone that purchased shares of the company between Oct 21, 1999 through March 6, 2000.

Also be aware, that while the court system has given this settlement a preliminary approval, it will review the terms on October 20 to determine the fairness of the settlement agreement.

Tags: Coke, inthenews, investors, KO, law, lawsuit, SEC