Coca Cola Company: An Unethical Company

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Unethical Company
Companies are regularly faced with conflicting situations that would require a decision to be made for them to move forward or attain their objective. The business decision can be on either side of the ethical scale that differentiates that which is right from wrong. The broad nature of ethics can be narrowed down into four main perspectives where decision-makers can base their decisions or be judged based on utilitarianism, deontological, rights, and virtue ethical theories (Arnold and Bowie 10). Business ethics addresses the ethical dilemmas that may arise in a business setting, outlining the principles and practices that are crucial in promoting the morality of the company. Governments have played a critical role in instilling elements of morality by imposing legal penalties, but other unethical business practices are beyond the scope of the law and may render a company unethical. Coca-Cola Company has on numerous occasions been accused of being an unethical company, with the accusations spanning from unfair competition, environmental ethics, and discrimination.
Any practice that presents a negative impression of a competing brand or its product aimed at boosting the competitive advantage counts as an aspect of unfair competition (Lipska and Kijanka par. 4). Unfair competition is a practice that is very much familiar with the Coca-Cola company, having battled court cases from competitors and government authorities on matters that amount to unfair competition (Lipska and Kijanka). PepsiCo, a major competitor to Coca-Cola in the soft drinks business, has on numerous occasions engaged in legal battles with Coca-Cola, claiming incidences of unfair competition. In 2009, PepsiCo filed a lawsuit that cited false advertising, trademark infringement, and injurious business reputation against Coca-Cola Company when it was advertising a product it had launched (Reuters par.4). Similar complaints regarding unfair competitive strategies by Coca-Cola were made by a non-profit corporation, The Praxis Project, claiming that Coca-Cola broke the California Unfair Competition Law by engaging in false advertising while promoting its products (CSPI par.1).
Environmental ethics seeks to foster the environmental performance of individuals and organizations by championing a restricted association of mankind and their operation on the natural environment (Singh et al. 1). Coca-Cola’s environmental performance is at all times low due to their negligence in plastic management, claims of water wastage, and poor carbon management, all of which are detrimental to the state of nature and consequently disputing environmental ethics. Coca-Cola company is accused of disposing of over 40 billion plastic bottles annually to the environment, and it has managed to reuse only 60% of its plastic bottles, with the rest left as environmental pollutants (Jack par.5). A lawsuit against the major global brands that heavily rely on plastics, Coca-Cola included, was filed in California state court seeking to hold accountable the firms for their role in the pollution of the environment (Loftus-Farren par.1). Coca-Cola is guilty of being a key player in the pollution of the environment ...