Ruixing Coffee Vice President Late Night Starbucks Ruixing Coffee Sues Starbucks Monopoly Formal Case

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At noon on the 16th, Guo Jinyi, vice president of Luckin Coffee, issued a notice for the court to accept the case in moments. The notice shows that Luckin Coffee's case against Starbucks Coffee and Starbucks Enterprise Management (China) Co., Ltd. has been formally filed in the court.

Yesterday afternoon, Luckin Coffee held a media communication meeting, saying that the company found two major problems in its operation: first, there were exclusive provisions in Starbucks' contracts with many properties, and even idle stores could not be leased to other "coffee" merchants; second, Starbucks frequently pressured suppliers to stand in line to "choose one of the two." Luckin Coffee believes that Starbucks has constituted a monopoly and decided to complain to the national anti-monopoly administrative law enforcement agency and sue to the relevant courts.

To Luckin Coffee's accusation, Starbucks responded yesterday afternoon: "have no intention to participate in the market hype of other brands." We welcome orderly competition, mutual promotion, continuous innovation, continuous improvement of quality and service, and create real value for Chinese consumers. " However, Starbucks did not directly respond to the question of whether there was an exclusive clause in the lease contract with the landlord and whether it had ever asked the supplier to "choose one of the two".

Luckin Coffee vice president late at night against Starbucks: see you in court tomorrow

Late last night, Guo Jinyi once again expressed his dissatisfaction with Starbucks' monopoly behavior in moments and said: "how dare you answer my question directly?" Luckin Coffee has no intention of hype, the evidence is conclusive, and it is useless to say more. See you in court tomorrow! "

Luckin Coffee held a press conference on the afternoon of May 15, saying that due to the deliberate squeeze of Starbucks in its operation, he chose to speed up the resolution of the problem through legal means. Jindu Law firm has been entrusted to complain to the national anti-monopoly administrative law enforcement agency on the issues mentioned in the press conference in the near future, and formally file a lawsuit with the relevant city people's court. Guo Jinyi said that in the recent business development, the following situations have been encountered: first, there is an exclusive clause in the contracts signed by Luckin Coffee with many properties, even if there is spare space, it cannot be rented to Lucky; second, Starbucks has frequently put pressure on suppliers to stand in line, and some partners have recently been notified that Starbucks will stop supplying goods because Starbucks has many suppliers coinciding with Starbucks.

Li Zhongsheng, a partner of King & du Law firm entrusted, said that according to the survey data from Euromonitor International, an authoritative research firm, Starbucks' market share in Chinese coffee shop service in 2017 was 58.6%. It has a dominant position in the coffee shop service market, especially in the chain coffee shop service market. According to Article 14 of the Anti-monopoly Law, an operator with a dominant position in the market shall not enter into an exclusive "exclusive purchase agreement" with the counterpart of the transaction; article 17 stipulates that an operator with a dominant position in the market shall not restrict the counterpart of the transaction to trade with himself without good reason.

Luckin Coffee released an open letter to Starbucks, hoping that Starbucks would give the coffee industry a chance to compete fairly and give consumers more choices.

As a new coffee brand, the high-profile accusation that the monopoly of the international giant Starbucks smacks of porcelain, but the announcement of the notice of acceptance of the case and the response of Starbucks to avoid the most important and light points make people believe that the monopoly of Starbucks is by no means groundless.