- Safiu Kehinde
“Furthermore, NBC used identical packaging for both Zero Sugar and its 50:50 variant of Limca Lime- Lemon flavoured drink, misleading consumers and violating Sections 17(g), 1 16(1) & (2), and 123 of the FCCPA and Section 2(a) of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control Act 2004.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has accused beverage giant Coca Cola and Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC) of misleading its consumers over it’s product change.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) on their X handle yesterday.
FCCPC accused the beverage giants of misleading trade description and unfair marketing tactics which stirred up from Coca-Cola’s description of its brand as “Original Taste, Less Sugar” during their course of migration from regular sugar to non-nutritive sweeteners.
According to FCCPC, they have been investigating Coca-cola and NBC since 2019 over the allegedly false claims, which was said to violate the FCCPC Act and NDLEA Act.
The statement reads “Accordingly, and considering that the conduct continues and remains, the Commission has entered, issued and served its Final order on Coca-Cola and NBC on July 29, 2024. The Final Order contains the Commission’s findings some of which include:
“Misleading trade descriptions under Section 1 16 FCCPA by continuing to mislead consumers to believing Coca-Cola Original Taste is not materially different from Coca-Cola Original Taste “Less Sugar.”
“Unfair marketing tactics: Contrary to Section 124(1 of the FCCPA, Coca-Cola Nigeria markets Coca-Cola Original Taste Less Sugar in packaging first, indistinguishable, and now not sufficiently distinguishable from Coca-Cola Original Taste, contrary to Sections 1 23(1)(a), (b), and (c) of the FCCPA.
“Further, Coca-Cola and NBC after regulatory intervention still failed to take appropriate steps to modify misleading behaviour demonstrating that the Companies acted intentionally by misrepresenting Coca-Cola Original Taste Less Sugar as Coca-Cola Original Taste in a deliberate business strategy.
“Furthermore, NBC used identical packaging for both Zero Sugar and its 50:50 variant of Limca Lime- Lemon flavoured drink, misleading consumers and violating Sections 17(g), 1 16(1) & (2), and 123 of the FCCPA and Section 2(a) of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control Act 2004. The Commission found NBC applied deceptive trade descriptions to the two variance and supply these products to consumers violating Section 1 1 6 (3) of the FCCPA.
“The Commission has reserved the question of Abuse of Dominance and quantum of the penalty appropriate under the FCCPA and Administrative Penalties Regulation 2020 (APR) for further regulatory action, and same will be imposed in due course.”