The Coca-Cola Romania Company will collaborate with Romania’s National Consumer Protection (ANPC) in an investigation started for the verification of three Fanta products in all EU member states to detect an alleged double standard and will provide arguments and evidence to substantiate the company’s position in relation to the accusations, according to Agerpres.

„We have been cooperating with ANPC in this matter since June 2022 and will continue to provide arguments and evidence to substantiate our company’s position in relation to the allegations made in this investigation. We are dedicated to our firm commitment to provide consumers with beverages at the best high quality standards in every country where we operate. At the same time, some recipes can be adapted for legitimate reasons, such as local regulations or consumer preferences, in accordance with the legislation in force,” Coca Cola Romania told Agerpres.

Also, the company claims full transparency of the ingredients and nutritional values of the products used, offering consumers clear information, both on the packaging and online (on www.coca-cola.ro), enabling them to get an informed choice.

According to an ANPC press statement of Thursday, Romania has requested the verification of the labels on three Fanta products in all EU member states in order to detect and combat what it calls the unfair commercial practice of differentiated quality as extremely different ingredients or concentrations of a particular ingredient have been detected depending on the EU member state where these products are marketed.

If it is established that there has been a violation of the legislation at the cross-border level, the double standard will be penalised according to the legal provisions in force by a fine to the amount of up to 4% of the turnover of the producing and distributing company, which, in the case of Romania alone, could amount to over 20 million euros, according to ANPC.

Five months ago, Romania, through ANPC – as the Single Liaison Office and competent authority under the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Regulation (EU 2017/2394) sent an alert to the Internal Market Information system of the European Commission requesting the verification in the European Union member states of the Fanta Portocale, Fanta Portocale Zero Zahar and Fanta Lamaie product labels.

On Thursday, January 12, 2023, Romania requested the initiation of a coordinated action by Romania, at the EU level, a joint verification together with the competent authorities of other member states that have powers to identify the alleged violation on a large scale of the provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/2161.

„This is practically pioneering work in detecting and combating, as an unfair commercial practice, differentiated quality – the so-called ‘double standard’ – for the three products largely consumed by European citizens,” according to ANPC.

Agerpres