The Malaysia Competition Commission (“MyCC”) has found no evidence of infringement in relation to a price increase notice of Coca-Cola beverages issued to supermarkets and hypermarkets in Peninsular Malaysia prior to the implementation of Sales and Services Tax (SST) on 1 September 2018.

This investigation follows a ministerial directive (in accordance to Section 14(1) of CA 2010) to investigate the notice issued by Coca-Cola Bottlers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Coca-Cola Refreshments Malaysia Sdn Bhd (hereinafter referred as Coca-Cola) in July 2018 in which contained recommended resale price at which various CocaCola beverages were to be sold to retailers and recommended consumer price to the consumer.

MyCC concludes that Coca-Cola and supermarket or hypermarkets were not involved in any vertical agreement that would likely to cause a negative effect on the market. Investigation further reveals that there was no evidence to indicate that Coca-Cola had induced the supermarkets and hypermarkets by way of incentives or promotional measures to encourage them to strictly adhere to the recommended resale or consumer price. Therefore, MyCC found that Coca Cola did not infringe Section 4 of the Competition Act 2010 and has issued a decision of non-infringement under Section 39 of the Act.