Less than a week after patching things up with Coca-Cola, Burger King received a subpoena from the federal grand jury investigating Coca-Cola for fraud, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The subpoena focuses on a marketing test that Coca-Cola employees rigged in Virginia in 2000 for Frozen Coke after product trials produced disappointing results. Burger King says it will comply with the subpoena.
Last week, Coca-Cola, Atlanta, and Burger King, Miami, announced they had reached an agreement to keep Frozen Coke on the BK menu after the QSR had said it would phase out frozen carbonated beverages for “not being strategically relevant to the long-term vision for the Burger King brand” (Xtra, Aug. 5).
Coca-Cola admitted to the tampering charges in June, which were first raised in a lawsuit by former Coca-Cola employee Matthew Whitley. The District Attorney’s Office for the North District of Atlanta is conducting the grand jury investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission is making an informal inquiry as well.
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