Switzerland: Aldi does parallel import of Coca-Cola
- DRC Discount Retail Consulting GmbH
- Jun 26
- 3 min read
Discount Retail Chain Aldi Switzerland sells Coca-Cola with Polish names. The Coca-Cola Group has currently launched another campaign in which Coke bottles with first names on them can be bought. However, if you try to find your own name on such a bottle at Aldi Suisse, you will have difficulties, unless he or she has Polish roots. Because the cola bottles at Aldi currently have names like Piotr, Milosz and Staszek.
The reason: Aldi does not currently buy Coca-Cola from the Swiss distributor of the beverage manufacturer, but imports the bottles from Poland. The German discounter is not alone in this. Denner is also currently importing 1.5-liter cola bottles from abroad. Migros relies on parallel imports at Monster Energy and does not import Fanta and Sprite at all. Due to ongoing price negotiations, there could also be bottlenecks for 0.5-liter cola bottles, Migros writes.
The retailers accuse the beverage company of charging them too high a "Swiss surcharge". When asked, Aldi says that because of the parallel imports, it has been able to reduce the price of half-liter bottles from 1.49 to 1.29 francs.
COMCO became active as early as 2014
The dispute goes back a long way. As early as 2014, COMCO initiated an investigation against the Coca-Cola Group at the instigation of Denner. At that time, Denner imported 2-liter bottles from the Czech Republic and was subsequently able to reduce the retail price from 2.50 to 1.95 francs. But Denner accused the beverage company of obstructing these parallel imports, which would have violated antitrust law.
Even before COMCO could take any action, the parties involved reached an agreement, and Swiss retailers subsequently received a lower price. The peace did not last long: In 2019, Coca-Cola reduced the size of some beverage bottles (from 0.5 to 0.45 liters, for example) without lowering the price accordingly.
A lawsuit against Beiersdorf led to the "Lex Nivea"
Coop publicly opposed this step and called on Coca-Cola to negotiate. At the beginning of 2023, there was no cola to buy in Coop supermarkets even for a short time before an agreement was finally reached.
In order to make it easier for retailers to take action against international corporations, Swiss antitrust law was revised a few years ago. The revision, known as the "Lex Nivea", enables Swiss companies to defend themselves against foreign suppliers if they do not offer them the same conditions as foreign customers and if they have relative market power vis-à-vis their Swiss customers.
The appeal was triggered by a lawsuit by Denner, who wanted to buy from the Nivea Group Beiersdorf under the same conditions as German discounters. Denner's parent company Migros is now applying the new law for the first time. Beiersdorf has stated in the past that it has made Migros an offer that corresponds to market prices and conditions customary in the industry.
It is unclear whether there will also be an investigation by the Competition Commission in the dispute with Coca-Cola. The retailers and the company itself do not want to show their cards at the status of the negotiations. Coca-Cola says it is proud to produce in Switzerland and to contribute to domestic value creation.
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