Coca-Cola Faces Sugar Taxes in Europe

Like pretty much everybody else in the world, France is having some financial troubles these days. So to help replenish the national coffers, the country is considering putting a tax on sugary beverages.

That tax, however, seems to be increasing the heart rate of execs at the Sugary Beverage World Leader, Coca-Cola. The company said earlier this month that “it has suspended plans for a euro17 million ($24 million) investment in France to protest” the tax, according to ABC News.

The decision on whether to make the investment or not will wait until parliament debates the issue. The company claims the tax would be “unfair,” ABC reports, because it is focused on beverages that are “not harmful to health.”

FT reported that Coke's lobbying tactic follows French amusement-park owners, who successfully lobbied for a tax on their parks to not be passed. 

The French government is focused on the growing obesity problem, no pun intended. "It is necessary to put the brakes on the development of obesity, which weakens the health of the people concerned and represents, over the long term, a large cost for the health care system," the government's proposal reads, ABC reports.

Now, it may be Ireland's turn, as word comes that the Irish government is contemplating introducing a similar tax to curb consumption of sugary soft drinks — and halt the country's spiraling diabetes and obesity rates.