Monster Beverage Corporation

By Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - Monster Beverage Corp reached a $16.25 million settlement with shareholders who said the energy drink maker defrauded them by overstating the financial benefits of a distribution arrangement with Anheuser-Busch. The accord was disclosed in a Wednesday filing with the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, and requires court approval. Monster denied wrongdoing in agreeing to the all-cash settlement. It had said in March that it believed insurance would cover any potential accord. Shareholders led by the Structural Ironworkers Local Union #1 Pension Fund in Forest Park, Illinois, claimed that the record results posted in 2007 by the maker of Monster Energy and Allied drinks, then known as Hansen Natural Corp, were inflated. According to the complaint, the results reflected "channel stuffing," in which Monster would provide Anheuser distributors with too many drinks to sell, at times up to a year's worth of inventory, even though Anheuser had "practically abandoned" distribution of the Allied product line. The complaint also said Monster improperly deferred the reporting of promotional expenses, while executives took advantage of an inflated share price by selling $72 million of company stock. After the company's true financial condition became known on November 8, 2007, Monster's stock fell more than 23 percent in a single day, the complaint said. The proposed settlement class includes investors who held the stock between November 9, 2006, and that date. The lawsuit began in September 2008. Monster is based in Corona, California. Douglas Britton, a partner at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd representing the plaintiffs, did not immediately respond on Thursday to a request for comment. Judy Lin Sfetcu, a spokeswoman for Monster, did not immediately respond to a similar request. U.S. District Judge George Wu is expected to consider preliminary approval of the settlement at a June 19 hearing. The plaintiffs' lawyers plan to seek up to 25 percent of the settlement fund in fees, plus up to $360,000 for expenses. Anheuser is now part of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA . Monster shares were up 1.9 percent at $66.68 on the Nasdaq late on Thursday morning. The case is Cunha et al v. Hansen Natural Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 08-1249. (Reporting by Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Matthew Lewis)

At the 2018 AGM, Monster’s CEO explained that the company was resisting the requirement to devote company resources to comprehensively gathering data and publishing a slavery and human trafficking report on its sugarcane supply chain. Shareholders thought otherwise and delivered a decisive vote. Company leadership took action, and...things began to change...Finally...the parties came to an agreement [on] who would be directly accountable at the company, specific dates for incorporating the company’s Supplier Code of Conduct into supplier contracts...as well as targets for training suppliers through 2025.

Law360 (September 18, 2020, 11:10 PM EDT) -- A Monster Beverage Corp. investor hit the beverage giant's top brass with a derivative shareholder lawsuit Friday, claiming they've falsely touted the company's commitment to diversity when in reality they haven't given minorities any meaningful representation in the company's top ranks.

The shareholder alleged that Monster directors and officers didn’t ensure compliance with antidiscrimination laws and misrepresented the energy drink company’s commitment to inclusion. But the shareholder didn’t demonstrate that making a required pre-suit demand on Monster’s board would have been futile and was thus excused, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California said.

Coca-Cola, Keurig Dr Pepper, Conagra Brands, General Mills, Hershey, Kellanova, Mondelēz International and PepsiCo all reported a drop in contributions between 45% and 64%. Monster Energy, part of Monster Beverage, was the lone business to report an uptick in donations, nearly tripling to $101,732. Corona brewer Constellation Brands was roughly unchanged at $417,238 compared to 2020.

<table> <thead> <tr> <th scope="col">Topics recommended by government guidance</th> <th scope="col">Organisation’s response</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <th scope="row">The organisation’s structure, business and supply chains</th> <td> Covered </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row">Policies</th> <td> Covered </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row">Risk assessment</th> <td> Covered </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row">Due diligence (steps to address risk)</th> <td> Covered </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row">Training about modern slavery</th> <td> Covered </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row">Goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of the organisation's actions and progress over time</th> <td> Not covered </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

NEW DELHI, Oct 1 (Reuters) - PepsiCo ​and Monster Beverage have sued India's food regulator for banning their use of the "energy drink" label, non-public ‌court filings show, escalating a regulatory fight that has jolted a sector expected to be worth $1.6 billion by 2028.

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Monster Beverage can't escape a proposed class action alleging it allowed its employee 401(k) plan to be saddled with unreasonable recordkeeping costs and took excessive amounts from the plan to pad an Employee Retirement Income Security Act benefit account to treat it as a slush fund, a California federal judge has ruled.