Coca-Cola will not appeal the recent Ontario Court decision which rejected the company’s contention that it, not Pepsi-Cola Canada, had exclusive soft drink category rights to Toronto Blue Jays games on TSN.
Coca-Cola spokeswoman Sharon Mackay says the company’s lawyers have advised the soft drink maker an appeal of Justice James Farley’s decision would take from 18 months to two years for a hearing.
Mackay also says Coke’s lawyers have emphasized for cases such as this there are no standard sets of rules.
In September, Justice Farley upheld the three-year contract signed this year between Pepsi-Cola Canada and The Sports Network which gave that soft drink maker, not Coca-Cola, Blue Jays exclusivity.
Coca-Cola argued that a two-page contract drawn up by Coke and tsn executives for the 1989-91 seasons gave it the right of first refusal on any future soft drink advertising and the traditional incumbent advertiser’s right to renegotiate a new pact.
