
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 20, 1991                   TAG: 9102200162
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

HIGH COURT BOTTLES UP COKE LAWSUIT

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to revive an antitrust lawsuit in which the nation's largest maker of plastic soft-drink bottles charged that The Coca-Cola Co. and 34 bottlers illegally conspired to reduce competition.

Sewell Plastics Inc., an Atlanta-based firm that pioneered plastic two-liter bottles for soft drinks, sued for $17 million from Coca-Cola and bottlers in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama.

The bottlers told Sewell Plastics in 1981 that unless it lowered its prices they would form a cooperative and make their own bottles. When Sewell refused to cut prices, the bottlers formed Southeastern Container Inc.

Tuesday's ruling rejected Sewell's argument that the cooperative keeps independent bottle makers from competing for up to 40 percent of the market for plastic containers. - Associated Press

by CNB