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400 | <s>[INST] Just one month later, [/INST] P&G had its own crisis in Brazil. </s> |
401 | <s>[INST] Colgate, which had about 27% of the toothpaste market [/INST] there, offered $1 billion to acquire Kolynos, which had about 52%, from American Home Products Corp. </s> |
402 | <s>[INST] P&G also had been bidding for Kolynos, but Colgate offered about [/INST] 40% more money than any other bid and ended P&G's chances of quickly establishing itself in Brazil's toothpaste market. </s> |
403 | <s>[INST] After a phone call from Cincinnati alerted P&G executives in Latin America that [/INST] the company had lost out on the bidding, Mr. Montoya shifted to Plan B: Foil Colgate by persuading the CADE to halt the acquisition. </s> |
404 | <s>[INST] P&G executives around the [/INST] world began compiling information on similar cases. </s> |
405 | <s>[INST] Colleagues in Europe sent Brazil precedent [/INST] upon precedent, rulings about mergers stymied by European regulators. </s> |
406 | <s>[INST] In Mexico, they assembled detailed market histories to [/INST] show how consumers had been damaged by the dominance of companies such as Colgate. </s> |
407 | <s>[INST] P&G argued that Colgate has delayed [/INST] launching new products unless pressured by a robust competitor. </s> |
408 | <s>[INST] For example, it told regulators that Colgate's Maximum Fluoride [/INST] Protection toothpaste, launched in the U.S. in 1969, wasn't brought to Mexico for 17 years. </s> |
409 | <s>[INST] And years after Colgate had introduced [/INST] flexible toothpaste tubes, Mexican consumers were still using harder-to-use aluminum ones. </s> |
410 | <s>[INST] "If they didn't do it in Mexico, they [/INST] wouldn't do it here," says Yolanda Leite, P&G's legal and public-affairs counsel in Brazil. </s> |
411 | <s>[INST] "We were saying, in [/INST] the end, the consumer benefits from competition". </s> |
412 | <s>[INST] Colgate says it targets "the needs of different [/INST] socioeconomic groups with a range of products offering different benefits at different prices". </s> |
413 | <s>[INST] It adds that it now has "fluoride in all [/INST] its toothpastes" and that it still offers some aluminum tubes "to help keep prices affordable". </s> |
414 | <s>[INST] After a nearly two-year review, the CADE in [/INST] September 1996 made Colgate pull the Kolynos brand off the market for four years. </s> |
415 | <s>[INST] P&G had hoped the commission would also force Colgate to [/INST] sell off a piece of its oral-care empire; P&G would have been all set to buy it. </s> |
416 | <s>[INST] Although Colgate was allowed to launch a new brand, Sorriso, Colgate's share [/INST] of the Brazilian toothpaste market isn't the 79% that the merger might have given it, but 73%, according to AC Nielsen Corp. </s> |
417 | <s>[INST] P&G has doubled its market [/INST] share in Brazil but still holds only 0.4%. </s> |
418 | <s>[INST] Seven months after Colgate's initial bid for Kolynos, P&G faced similar [/INST] trouble in Mexico, where the Scott merger would give Kimberly-Clark control of about 90% of the country's tissue business. </s> |
419 | <s>[INST] So, in early 1996, P&G cranked up its [/INST] market-research machine and began sending streams of data about the Mexican tissue business to regulators. </s> |
420 | <s>[INST] P&G wasn't shy about pointing out that regulatory agencies in the [/INST] U.S. and Europe had already ruled on the merger, requiring, among other things, that Kimberly sell off its world-wide baby-wipes operations. </s> |
421 | <s>[INST] P&G Chairman John Pepper flew down to Mexico [/INST] City, made P&G's case before Mexico's competition commission and followed up with frequent phone calls. </s> |
422 | <s>[INST] In March 1996, Mexican regulators ruled that Kimberly-Clark would have to [/INST] sell the popular Regio brand of tissue, which had about 20% of the market -- and the merger went through. </s> |
423 | <s>[INST] P&G then bought another tissue [/INST] maker, Loreto y Pena Pobre SA, for $170 million. </s> |
424 | <s>[INST] 2 player, with about a [/INST] 20% share of Mexico's tissue market, behind Kimberly-Clark's 55%. </s> |
425 | <s>[INST] In early 1996, it faced a $40 million judgment [/INST] in Ecuador when a distributor of its Vicks products sued it for canceling its contract. </s> |
426 | <s>[INST] Viewing the law cited in the suit as unfair, P&G [/INST] lobbied Ecuador's congress relentlessly, and that March Mr. Pepper wrote a personal plea to President Fabian Alarcon. </s> |
427 | <s>[INST] But the issue remains alive, [/INST] as Ecuadorian courts continue to enforce the old law. </s> |
428 | <s>[INST] So, Mr. Montoya recently flew to New [/INST] York to appeal again to President Alarcon, who was attending a meeting there. </s> |
429 | <s>[INST] Last October, following the toilet-seat commercial, P&G lawyers met with [/INST] the National Commission for the Defense of Competition, an antitrust agency whose powers are being bolstered by the legislature. </s> |
430 | <s>[INST] Among other things, the commission has [/INST] doubled the size of its investigative staff to 35. </s> |
431 | <s>[INST] P&G, which trails Unilever in the [/INST] Argentine detergent market, 11% to 72%, laid out numerous grievances. </s> |
432 | <s>[INST] In mid-1995, P&G was planning to launch Ariel, the overseas version of its Tide laundry [/INST] detergent, and developed an ad campaign that was to feature a well-known talk-show host, Maria Laura Santillan, and testimonials on Ariel's cleaning power from washing-machine maker Whirlpool Corp. </s> |
433 | <s>[INST] P&G contacted all the participants, [/INST] but then decided to put the campaign on hold. </s> |
434 | <s>[INST] Enrique Banuchi, P&G's legal counsel in Argentina, says he was amazed a year later, when Unilever began [/INST] airing an ad for its Skip laundry soap, with Ms. Santillan starring as a reporter and Whirlpool and INTI as endorsers -- just as P&G had planned for its own ads. </s> |
435 | <s>[INST] Mr. Banuchi fired off a [/INST] letter asking Unilever to withdraw the commercial. </s> |
436 | <s>[INST] Unilever says the idea was [/INST] its own and has been used in other campaigns. </s> |
437 | <s>[INST] P&G also told the commission that [/INST] Unilever had paid wholesalers to stop carrying P&G's Duplex detergent. </s> |
438 | <s>[INST] Mr. Banuchi says Unilever offered wholesalers [/INST] generous payments that often exceeded the wholesalers' total sales of Duplex. </s> |
439 | <s>[INST] Unilever says, "None of our [/INST] actions impeded the free choice of the consumer". </s> |
440 | <s>[INST] The toilet-seat maker's logo, previously a black deer, [/INST] now resembled P&G's own Ariel detergent logo, with red letters on a green background. </s> |
441 | <s>[INST] P&G lawyers learned that Ariel del Plata, with annual [/INST] sales of just $6 million, had been used by Unilever as an endorser of its CIF cleanser. </s> |
442 | <s>[INST] Also, the disputed commercial was prepared by Ammiratis Puris [/INST] Lintas, the same ad agency that crafted the Skip campaign, and one of Unilever's main global agencies. </s> |
443 | <s>[INST] Neither Unilever nor Ariel del Plata responded to faxed [/INST] questions, and Alberto Betancort, president of Interpublic Group's Lintas unit in Argentina, declines to be interviewed. </s> |
444 | <s>[INST] P&G did some soul-searching before [/INST] taking its allegations to the antitrust agency. </s> |
445 | <s>[INST] Protesting a merger is one thing, but [/INST] accusing a competitor of unfair trade practices is a weightier matter. </s> |
446 | <s>[INST] P&G says it contacted Unilever managers in Argentina, [/INST] Caracas and even Britain to reach some kind of agreement, but to no avail. </s> |
447 | <s>[INST] At that point, P&G's general manager in Argentina, Carlos Paz [/INST] Soldan, and Mr. Montoya telephoned Cincinnati and planned strategy with its president and chief operating officer, Durk I. Jager. </s> |
448 | <s>[INST] Shortly after P&G filed its case, the commission raided [/INST] the offices of Lintas, Ariel del Plata and Unilever and hauled away boxes of documents. </s> |
449 | <s>[INST] It is expected to [/INST] complete its investigation within a few months. </s> |
450 | <s>[INST] If it finds Unilever at [/INST] fault, the case will go to Argentina's courts. </s> |
451 | <s>[INST] Mr. Montoya says P&G decided to wage the regulatory battle because it [/INST] wants a chance to compete fairly, but he won't predict whether the strategy ultimately will help increase sales in the region. </s> |
452 | <s>[INST] "It's the consumer who has to decide [/INST] whether our products or our competitors' products are better," he says. </s> |
453 | <s>[INST] ___ Document 154 of 500 The Americas: Argentines Tire of Menem's [/INST] Politicized Justice Author: By Horacio Verbitsky Publication info: Wall Street Journal , Eastern edition [New York, N.Y] 13 Mar 1998: A17. </s> |
454 | <s>[INST] accountid=28034 Abstract: During October's midterm elections, millions of voters deserted President Carlos Menem's [/INST] Justicialist Party for the new opposition, Alliance for Justice, Education and Work, which promised to hold the government more accountable to the nation's laws. </s> |
455 | <s>[INST] These results are widely viewed as the beginning of a popular [/INST] struggle for the impartial justice that has been lacking in the more than nine years of the Menem regime. </s> |
456 | <s>[INST] A key issue, interestingly enough, will be [/INST] Mr. Menem's now evident desire to run for a third term. </s> |
457 | <s>[INST] This is a legal matter because [/INST] Argentina's constitution clearly forbids more than two presidential terms. </s> |
458 | <s>[INST] Mr. Menem carefully selected members [/INST] of Argentina's Supreme Court, which was itself controversial. </s> |
459 | <s>[INST] But if he tries as well to persuade that court [/INST] to reinterpret, in his favor, the term limit in the constitution, there is likely to be a furor. </s> |
460 | <s>[INST] Argentines are not particularly happy with the court [/INST] even now, because of a widespread belief that Mr. Menem has politicized the judiciary. </s> |
461 | <s>[INST] Nor, if the polls are [/INST] accurate, are they pleased with Mr. Menem himself. </s> |
462 | <s>[INST] Nevertheless, in his last address to congress, [/INST] Mr. Menem showed that he still dreams of a third term in office. </s> |
463 | <s>[INST] Mr. Menem rationalized packing the Supreme Court -- a [/INST] la FDR's failed attempt -- in order to garner legal support for his market-oriented economic reforms. </s> |
464 | <s>[INST] But none of the original five members of the [/INST] Supreme Court were hostile to the free market or had any socialist or populist sympathies. </s> |
465 | <s>[INST] On the contrary, one of the surviving [/INST] justices drafted the ruling that backed the privatization of the national airline. </s> |
466 | <s>[INST] Another of the original justices affirmed the [/INST] freezing of all financial deposits, decreed by Mr. Menem to fight hyperinflation. </s> |
467 | <s>[INST] And a third wrote a decision strongly sought by local and foreign investors [/INST] as a condition to join the privatization process: the authorization to strip the workers in the state-run public services of their good-old-times labor rights. </s> |
468 | <s>[INST] Full text: BUENOS AIRES -- During October's midterm elections, millions of voters deserted President [/INST] Carlos Menem's Justicialist Party for the new opposition, Alliance for Justice, Education and Work, which promised to hold the government more accountable to the nation's laws. </s> |
469 | <s>[INST] These results are widely viewed as the beginning of a popular [/INST] struggle for the impartial justice that has been lacking in the more than nine years of the Menem regime. </s> |
470 | <s>[INST] A key issue, interestingly enough, will be [/INST] Mr. Menem's now evident desire to run for a third term. </s> |
471 | <s>[INST] This is a legal matter because [/INST] Argentina's constitution clearly forbids more than two presidential terms. </s> |
472 | <s>[INST] Mr. Menem carefully selected members [/INST] of Argentina's Supreme Court, which was itself controversial. </s> |
473 | <s>[INST] But if he tries as well to persuade that court [/INST] to reinterpret, in his favor, the term limit in the constitution, there is likely to be a furor. </s> |
474 | <s>[INST] Argentines are not particularly happy with the court [/INST] even now, because of a widespread belief that Mr. Menem has politicized the judiciary. </s> |
475 | <s>[INST] Nor, if the polls are [/INST] accurate, are they pleased with Mr. Menem himself. </s> |
476 | <s>[INST] Nevertheless, in his last address to congress, [/INST] Mr. Menem showed that he still dreams of a third term in office. </s> |
477 | <s>[INST] One of Mr. Menem's first presidential decisions in 1990 was [/INST] to use his party's majority in Congress to increase the Supreme Court to nine members from five. </s> |
478 | <s>[INST] Two of the sitting justices resigned, perhaps [/INST] not coincidentally, which allowed him to appoint six new members in all. </s> |
479 | <s>[INST] His nominations went to congress on a Thursday afternoon and [/INST] the Senate confirmed them on Friday morning, in a seven-minute secret session, without the attendance of the opposition legislators. </s> |
480 | <s>[INST] There was no previous screening of the [/INST] candidates, no public hearings; only the weight of an automatic majority, recklessly used. </s> |
481 | <s>[INST] His official resume reveals that he has published "some [/INST] articles on Municipal Law" and was chief of police in La Rioja province, Mr. Menem's own Arkansas. </s> |
482 | <s>[INST] The vice president of the Supreme Court is the brother-in-law of [/INST] the chief of the Intelligence Service; his most eminent previous assignment was as president of the country's Tennis Association. </s> |
483 | <s>[INST] Mr. Menem rationalized packing the Supreme Court -- a [/INST] la FDR's failed attempt -- in order to garner legal support for his market-oriented economic reforms. </s> |
484 | <s>[INST] But none of the original five members of the [/INST] Supreme Court were hostile to the free market or had any socialist or populist sympathies. </s> |
485 | <s>[INST] On the contrary, one of the surviving [/INST] justices drafted the ruling that backed the privatization of the national airline. </s> |
486 | <s>[INST] Another of the original justices affirmed the [/INST] freezing of all financial deposits, decreed by Mr. Menem to fight hyperinflation. </s> |
487 | <s>[INST] And a third wrote a decision strongly sought by local and foreign investors [/INST] as a condition to join the privatization process: the authorization to strip the workers in the state-run public services of their good-old-times labor rights. </s> |
488 | <s>[INST] Eight years and hundreds of rulings later, it appears to many that there was a less [/INST] idealistic objective for packing the court: to hamper the system of constitutional checks and balances that Argentina imported from the U.S. in the 19th century to prevent absolute executive branch power. </s> |
489 | <s>[INST] Mr. Menem's control over the court was possibly meant to protect not [/INST] entirely up-and-up political and electoral maneuvers from close judicial scrutiny and thereby protect him and his relatives and collaborators from legal sanctions. </s> |
490 | <s>[INST] But Mr. Menem did not [/INST] stop at hand picking the Supreme Court. </s> |
491 | <s>[INST] In the federal branch of the judiciary in [/INST] the city of Buenos Aires, he managed to get the resignation of all six judges. </s> |
492 | <s>[INST] He doubled the number of tribunals [/INST] and public prosecutors and appointed 12 judges and 24 prosecutors. </s> |
493 | <s>[INST] He also created a new Higher [/INST] Chamber of Appeals and nominated all 13 of its justices. </s> |
494 | <s>[INST] This means that in the most crucial branch of the [/INST] federal law enforcement, the city of Buenos Aires, Mr. Menem has appointed 90% of the top officials. </s> |
495 | <s>[INST] The president's criteria were well illustrated by the appointment [/INST] of the son of his tarot fortune teller -- who was later convicted of impersonating a lawyer. </s> |
496 | <s>[INST] More than 100 of Mr. Menem's cabinet members, other [/INST] high-ranking officials and relatives (such as his sister-in-law Amira Yoma) have been investigated on corruption charges. </s> |
497 | <s>[INST] As the press investigates these [/INST] cases, Mr. Menem regularly insults and sues journalists. </s> |
498 | <s>[INST] He has drafted at least three gag bills -- which [/INST] include jail terms and heavy fines to silence critics in the press -- that Congress has refused to pass. </s> |
499 | <s>[INST] "The judicial system is subject to political [/INST] influence," reads the chapter on Argentina in the U.S. State Department's Jan. </s> |
Subsets and Splits