{"id":118048,"date":"2025-04-28T22:24:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T21:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=118048"},"modified":"2025-04-28T22:24:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T21:24:30","slug":"tribunal-rejects-nbc-settlement-upholds-n190m-fccpc-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/tribunal-rejects-nbc-settlement-upholds-n190m-fccpc-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribunal Rejects NBC Settlement, Upholds N190m FCCPC Fine"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Daniel Adaji<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT) in Abuja has upheld the N190m\u00a0 penalty imposed on Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC) by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), dismissing a last-minute attempt to halt judgment through a proposed settlement agreement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Delivering judgment on Monday, the Tribunal, chaired by Justice Thomas Okosun, ruled that NBC&#8217;s efforts to introduce settlement terms after final arguments had been submitted amounted to an illegal attempt to &#8220;arrest judgment.&#8221; The panel firmly rejected the move, describing it as \u201cunknown to Nigerian law.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe Tribunal cannot indulge in private compromises; we must uphold our constitutional duty to the public,\u201d Okosun declared, adding that the FCCPC\u2019s role as a public regulator cannot be negotiated away through backdoor arrangements.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThis undermines the FCCPC\u2019s role as a regulator,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The case stems from a dispute between NBC\u2014the bottling franchise holder for Coca-Cola in Nigeria\u2014and the FCCPC, over allegations of deceptive product labeling.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Commission alleged that NBC and Coca-Cola Nigeria Ltd (CCNL) misled consumers by marketing the \u201cOriginal Taste, Less Sugar\u201d variant as being identical to the classic \u201cOriginal Taste\u201d Coca-Cola.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In its defence, NBC argued that the labelling issues, particularly regarding the zero-sugar variant of Limca Lime-Lemon, were not intentional but the result of a production error at its Abuja facility. The company maintained that the mislabeling was isolated and accidental.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe mislabeling was accidental, not deliberate,\u201d NBC stated in its amended appeal.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>NBC&#8217;s legal team, led by Senior Advocate Oluseye Opasanya, challenged the FCCPC\u2019s findings, calling them baseless and outside the Commission\u2019s statutory jurisdiction. Opasanya further argued that proving willful intent would require inspection of all eight of NBC\u2019s factories across Nigeria, not just the Abuja plant.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However, FCCPC counsel Abimbola Ojenike insisted that the Commission acted within its legal authority, citing violations of multiple sections of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA), including Sections 17(2), 116, and 124.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He urged the Tribunal to reject NBC\u2019s appeal and uphold the penalty.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Tribunal agreed with the FCCPC, ruling that the company\u2019s conduct was \u201cclearly misleading\u201d and breached Nigerian consumer protection laws. It affirmed the Commission\u2019s authority to penalize violations and ordered NBC to pay the N190m fine within 60 days.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This ruling mirrors a similar decision by the Tribunal recently, where it upheld a fine of $220m imposed by the FCCPC against Meta Platforms Inc. and its subsidiary WhatsApp. In that case, the FCCPC penalized the tech giants for breaching user privacy and failing to comply with data protection standards. The Tribunal\u2019s decision in that instance also reinforced the FCCPC\u2019s regulatory authority and commitment to consumer rights.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the NBC matter, the Tribunal criticized the Commission\u2019s sudden reversal in accepting a settlement that waived the fine entirely, stating that such action contradicted the FCCPC\u2019s mandate.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe FCCPC\u2019s acceptance of a settlement after final address conflicted with its public regulatory mandate,\u201d the Tribunal noted.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Despite NBC\u2019s assertion that the matter had been resolved amicably with the FCCPC, the Tribunal made clear that legal procedures cannot be bypassed.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cEntering into a settlement after judgment was reserved exceeded the powers of the FCCPC,\u201d Okosun emphasised.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>NBC\u2019s appeal was dismissed for lacking merit, and the Tribunal&#8217;s decision now sets a precedent reinforcing the limits of post-judgment settlements in regulatory litigation.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Adaji The Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT) in Abuja has upheld the N190m\u00a0 penalty imposed on Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC) by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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