Coca Cola dominance in the market is one of the greatest ways its marketing skills are used. Coke tried to dominate the European market by moving in and placing their products in various locations and they also started to buy out the local competition. In 1999, the European Commission investigated Coke, the commission was concerned that coke was abusing its dominant position. On October 19, 2004, the investigation was over and coke came to a settlement. The agreement, if coke ever breached it a fine would be imposed.

The agreement lays out that coke could only move in to locations where Coke’s market share is more then forty percent and were coke sales are more than twice of its closest competition. This led to a completion across Europe for the carbonated soft drinks and which led to consumers’ choice of which product they prefer. Coke could no longer dominate a market in which Coca-Cola made coke the only product available. Coke also had to stop rewarding their customers on how many cases they ordered the previous year and having a certain area within the store where it was just coke products.

The retailers were also free to put whatever they desired in coolers provided by coke, as long as eighty percent of the cooler includes coke products. Coca Cola is know through out the world for its great one of a kind taste, many don’t know the corporation itself can taste bad sometimes. In 1999, Coca Cola reputation was headed down hill when 1,500 African American employed sued for racial discriminations. Current and former African American employees hit the giant carbonated soft drink maker with a class-action lawsuit. The company was being accused of discriminating in the areas of pay, promotion, and performance evaluation.

According to the salary reports that Coca Cola pretend in court shows that in 1995, the average African American employee was paid $19,000 less then the whites. In 1998, it showed that average black was being paid $27,000 less than the average white. Another complaint was that there were no jobs being posted and positions were being filled up. Possible candidates were chosen in advance and the supervisors wouldn’t have no interviews and they would alter the applicant scores just to ensure their favorite was chosen for the job. The lawsuit also stated, there were only a few African Americans who advanced to senior levels within the company.

Those who advanced to the senior level of the firm were placed in less powerful and non-revenue generating areas In 2002, according to the U. S. Department of Labor, Coca-Cola Bottling Company, which is a Charlotte based firm will pay $495,000 back in wages to ninety-five black and Hispanic job applicants who had applied for sales positions. An investigation had determined that those minorities who were qualified weren’t getting accepted at the same rate as the qualified white applicants. After being investigated, Coca-Cola resolved all the issues dealing with discrimination and has shown the world that they are very ethical.