The Competition Commissioner on Monday published for public comment a notice of a further agreed intent to charge the Central Bottling Company Ltd. The company is the exclusive franchisee in Israel of Coca-Cola and various beer brands such as Tuborg and Carlsberg, and holds several additional food and beverage companies.
Under the agreed terms, the company will pay an additional sum of more than NIS 1.5 million to the State Treasury. This payment comes on top of an agreed financial sanction of approximately NIS 18 million imposed on the company and announced in February 2026, an amount that was indeed imposed and already paid by the firm.
The additional financial sanction was imposed on the Central Bottling Company for individual violations of the Law for Promotion of Competition in the Food and Pharm Sectors (the Food Law). These violations concern recommended retail prices in food chains for soft drink products manufactured by the Central Bottling Company.
When the agreed sanctions were imposed in February 2026, the commissioner excluded these violations in order to examine whether they also breached instructions for a monopoly holder, which were imposed on the Central Bottling Company as part of its declaration as a monopoly holder in 1998. The examination conducted yielded no indications of a breach of these instructions by the company, and the commissioner consequently reached agreed sanctions with it for breaching the Food Law regarding these violations as well.
Additional sanction follows broader competition review
The current step follows a sector-wide review launched by the Competition Commissioner in early 2022. The review examined all existing agreements between major food suppliers and major food retailers (as defined in lists published by the commissioner), focused on supplier conduct, and examined the commercial relationships between each of the major suppliers and each of the major retailers, as well as their compliance with the provisions of the Food Law.
As part of the enforcement procedure against the major suppliers, the commissioner reached agreements with all major suppliers examined for the payment of financial sanctions totaling over NIS 150 million. The agreed sanctions reached by the commissioner enable rapid and effective enforcement of the law's provisions. The Competition Authority is currently conducting a parallel examination into the conduct of major retailers in the market and their compliance with the provisions of the Food Law.
The agreed notice on the current intent to charge is now published for public review and comment for 30 days.