Nigeria filed a suit Monday against Coca-Cola for allegedly refusing to comply with orders from the Consumer Protection Council over two half-empty cans of evaporating Sprite.
A consumer complained to the council, which investigated the short-filled cans of Sprite bought at a supermarket in Abuja and recommended legal action.
The consumer council in February warned Coca-Cola that Nigeria was not a “dumping ground for substandard products” and said that it had also been been inundated with complaints about rusty cans, rusty bottle tops and foreign particles in beverages.
It said the half-filled cans continued to evaporate during its investigation.
Attorney General Mohammed Bello Adoke, who is also the justice minister, filed the suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja against Coca-Cola Nigeria and its chief executive, and the Nigerian Bottling Company and its managing director for criminal breach of the Consumer Protection Act.
He accused both companies of “deliberately failing, refusing and/or neglecting to comply” with orders to subject their manufacturing processes to its inspection, and filed an additional charge against Coca-Cola for refusing to appear before the council. Nigerian Bottling manufactures the products under the license and authority of Coca-Cola Nigeria.
The infractions carry jail terms of three to five years. Coca-Cola did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Considering the wide coverage of Coca-Cola products in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of some 160 million people, the council found the development with the cans of Sprite a threat to public health, as opposed to an isolated incident.
Keep a date with us as we will update you with information as they unfold.
NBC RESPONDS TO THE ABOVE ALLEGATION…………..
NBC, COCA COLA’S RESPONSE TO CPC’S CHARGES OF VIOLATING CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT…………
The attention of Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC) and Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited
(CCNL) has been drawn to certain news reports on the subject.
We wish to comment as follows:
1. We note from media reports that criminal charges have been filed against NBC and CCNL in
relation to alleged violations of the orders that were issued by the Consumer Protection
Council in February 2014 following a consumer complaint involving two (2) short-filled cans
of Sprite. To date we have not been served with any criminal charges.
2. NBC and CCNL have the utmost respect for the Consumer Protection Council as a regulator
and an agency of government and will continue to cooperate with the Council on this matter.
3. We filed applications for a judicial review of these orders in February 2014, which review is
pending in the courts. We do not believe that our submission to judicial review is in violation
of the Council’s orders. We have full trust in the Nigerian judicial system.
4. Our consumers and customers are our highest priority. NBC and CCNL take all matters
relating to our products very seriously and remain committed to maintaining the highest
international quality and food safety standards.
5. Out of respect for the ongoing court processes, we do not wish to comment further in public
on this issue.