Dive Brief:
- Coca-Cola Co. is moving forward with its pursuit of a 16.7% minority stake in Monster Beverage Corp., which was originally announced in August and expected to be finalized in June.
- Monster has faced a string of lawsuits, mostly involving either the harm allegedly caused to the drink's consumers or its alleged marketing to children.
- The legal challenges do pose a risk for Coca-Cola, but the $10 billion U.S. energy drink market may be enticing to the soft drink company as its flagship market segment has been on the decline for the past decade.
Dive Insight:
The energy drink market has been enveloped in controversy in the past few years as more health risk claims surface. The FDA is currently looking into 300 "adverse event" reports since 2004 allegedly related to energy drinks, nearly half of which came between October 2012 and April 2015, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Monster isn't the only energy drink company to see past and pending lawsuits, as these lawsuits are spread across the board for several major companies in this market. Whether Coca-Cola is dipping its toe into something the company should be avoiding is up for debate, but there's no question the soda giant could use a boost considering the state of soft drink sales.