Coca-Cola offers $21M settlement

MIAMI (AP) -- Hoping to mend a rift with an important customer, Coca-Cola Co. is offering Burger King restaurant operators more than $21 million in response to allegations that Coke employees rigged a beverage marketing test at the fast-food outlets.
Each Burger King Corp. restaurant with a Frozen Coke machine installed as of May 2000 will get $1,000 from Coca-Cola as part of any repair costs for the machines and any losses that franchisees had with the equipment through June, Burger King CEO Brad Blum said this week in a letter to restaurant owners.
At least 80 percent of the franchisees must accept the agreement, which would total $21.1 million, Blum wrote. The offer also includes a $6.4 million payment to Burger King Corp.
The U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta is investigating the fraud allegations, first made in a former Coke manager's lawsuit. Matthew Whitley claimed Coca-Cola rigged a marketing test of the popularity of the new drink and artificially boosted equipment sales.
In June, the world's biggest soft drink company acknowledged that some of its employees undermined the test of Frozen Coke three years ago at Burger King restaurants in Virginia and said the workers had been disciplined.