Always Coca-Cola

By Gary Rice, Beauchamps Solicitors

Pepsi has launched an action in the US against fellow soft drink giant Coca-Cola in relation to the latter’s Powerade sports drink. Pepsi is the owner of Gatorade which has in excess of 75% of the US sports drink market. In order to increase its share of the sports drink market, Coca-Cola sought to develop its product by mimicking fluids lost by athletes during exercise – in other words, sweat. This involved adding calcium and magnesium to the Powerade formula and adjusting the other ingredients so that Powerade contained the electrolytes in approximately the same ratio that the electrolytes are lost in sweat.