The multinational beverage company Coca-Cola sells in over 200 countries and labeled over 3,500 soft drinks, water, juices, tea and cafes in over 135 languages. The Platform for La Llengua has been trying for twenty years for the multinational to label it in Catalan, but it has never succeeded in doing so. They're not labeled in Basque either.

The report by the Plataforma per la Llengua (20 anys per l’etiquetatge en català) shows the struggle that the association has been fighting for twenty years. In the opinion of the association, it is worth noting the treatment that Coca-Cola gives to the Catalan community when considering the number of speakers. If you look at the multinational market in the European Union, there are far smaller ones than the Catalan speaking community. It is followed by French (in Switzerland and Belgium), Slovenian, Slovak, Croatian, Macedonian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Danish, Icelandic and others.

On the one hand, the number of speakers and on the other hand, the consumption of Coca-Cola by the Catalans. In 2013, consumption of Coca-Cola in the Spanish state increased by 13%. The Spanish state is one of the best buyers. Coca-Cola sells the 14% it sells in Europe in the Spanish state, compared to 17% in Germany, which is in the first position. Spain ranks sixth in the international ranking, behind the United States, Mexico, Japan, Brazil and Germany. As far as Catalonia is concerned, it can be compared that the Catalan community has twice as many speakers from the French and Dutch communities in Belgium. However, Coca-Cola label in French, Dutch and German - less than 100,000 speakers. Consumption is the same again. The second comparison we can make with the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The Catalan speaking community consumes twice as many of these countries, but Coca-Cola labels it in Norwegian, Dutch and Swedish, not in Catalan.

A meeting in twenty years

The Catalan labeling campaign was the first action the platform per la Llengua carried out in its creation. 15,000 Coca-Cola boats were collected in the Plaza de Catalunya in December 1993 and formed the phrase Etiquetem in Català with the boats that the citizens collected. Since then, the association has conducted more than one campaign. On one occasion, thousands of Coca-Cola boats were sent to the headquarters of Cogeba, the delegated Spanish company, all with the attached Catalan label. At the other end, about 800 phone calls were made in a week to the Madrid headquarters. The Cobega company was the first to obtain the concession of the US multinational in 1951, and was owned by the Daurella family. With this company and with Coca-Cola España, Plataforma per la Llengua tried to link frequently, but it has always been negative. Finally, the IMF met with the president of the Generalitat in 2007. They stayed for a second -- and to this day. The subsidiary of the US company Coca-Cola Iberian Partners, based in Madrid, premieres in Madrid from 2013. In the food sector, it is the most important company in Spain, EUR 3 billion a year.