16/05/2013
Manufacturer of Coca-Cola will have to pay a fine of U.S. $ 460,000 by reducing product packaging Autor: Superior Tribunal de Justiça
The Soft Minas Gerais Ltda., Producer of Coca-Cola, will have to pay almost £ 460,000 in updated values, because it reduced the amount of product in packaging of 600 ml to 500 ml. The fine, imposed by Procon state, was upheld by the Second Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ).
The national mining consumer protection, the company would have "makeup" the product, practicing "disguised increase" in prices, to reduce packaging of Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta and Kuat without adequately informing consumers.
To the Minister Humberto Martins, the information was not sufficiently on the strength of the brands, which caused harm to consumers.
"There is talk here of highly known - Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and Kuat -, for which the consumer has already developed the habit of guided more by brand and less by the details of the label. Exactly why the supplier should have nurtured preventively so that information on the volume reduction was indeed blatant, clear and precise, thereby preserving, consumer confidence, "summarized the rapporteur.
Featured insufficient
The company claimed to follow the standard of the Ministry of Justice, making the label included the reduction in nominal and percentage terms, and has also scaled down the price at the factory.
This argument was rejected by the judiciary both administratively as mining, which has set fees in the amount of $ 25 thousand.
Packaging notorious
For the Court of Minas Gerais (TJMG), reducing the volume of refrigerants from 600 ml to 500 ml, without any change in packaging has been recognized for several years by the consumer, would breach the consumer's right to information clearly, accurately and ostentatious.
STJ, Minister Humberto Martins followed the understanding miner. "The information was not only insufficient to alert the consumer, as was also kept the old size, shape and label of the container, which prevented or hindered the consumer realize the reduction in volume of the product sold in the market for years," evaluated the rapporteur.
Half information
"We can not rule out the misleading nature of the information that is false or partially missing the point of inducing the consumer to error, since there is valid information or half incomplete information," the minister added.
"And what's more, is not sufficient to provide the information. You must know pass it, because even the full and truthful may present deficiency in the way it is externalized or received by the consumer, "he asserted.
Protection of trust
The rapporteur also cited Karl Larenz doctrine to assert that "the act of 'raising confidence' is 'chargeable' when the cause who knows or should know that the other will trust."
In Brazil, the protection of the trust would be linked to the massification and propagation of anonymity in social relations, driven by new techniques of advertising and selling. The information would be part of that relationship.
"Information and trust are intertwined," said the minister. "The consumer has little knowledge about the products and services offered in the consumer market. Information plays obviously direct role in the emergence and maintenance of confidence by the consumer, "added Martins.
Transfer reduction
The STJ, the company also claimed that it could not be liable because proportionately reduced prices. It would be up to the distributors to pass on lower costs, bearing responsibility if they did not.
Minister Humberto Martins diverged from the manufacturer. For the rapporteur, the manufacturer makes up the chain generation is considered good and also supplier of the product.
So is caring for damages suffered by the consumer as well as the other participants of the production cycle. That is, even if the fault has been the distributors, the manufacturer still jointly responsible for addiction quantity of the product offered for sale.
The Panel held both fine as the fees, which reached U.S. $ 25 000 after being raised by the court miner. The sentence had fixed the value at £ 1000.
