Supreme Court: Coca Cola Israel to pay NIS 30 million fine

The Supreme Court’s decision ends years of litigation over the company’s actions against retailers and competitors, and obliges the company to pay a NIS 30 million fine.

Coca Cola Israel appealed on two key issues – a clause in trade agreements with customers that threatened to terminate contracts if part of the purchases were transferred to competitors, and the company’s policy regarding parallel imports of its products.

The Supreme Court rejected the company’s appeal regarding the threat against customers. The court decision indicated that the very inclusion of this clause in the trade agreements of the Central Company was an abuse of a dominant position.

However, on the issue of anti-parallel import policy, the Supreme Court upheld the Central Company’s appeal, ruling that in the relevant period parallel imports of the company’s products were not legal in any case, and therefore it was not possible to establish that its policy in this area caused harm to competition.