South Korea’s Golden Blue alleges Carlsberg one-sidedly canceled their sales contract

Golden Blue, a leading whiskey producer in South Korea, said that the Carlsberg Group canceled their contract, but it was a one-sided decision. The company said the move had left it with huge losses.

Golden Blue also distributes important alcoholic beverages in the country and on Tuesday, March 28, it said that the Danish brewing company "unilaterally" discontinued their agreement for the distribution and sale of its Carlsberg beer brand. It said that the contract had been invalidated earlier this month.

According to The Korea Herald, Golden Blue announced that it will now stop the sale of the Carlsberg beer products starting Friday of this week. The company said that the notice of contract termination sent by the Denmark headquartered brewer to them was “tyrannous.”

Golden Blue described Carlsberg’s move in this way because the cancellation was decided upon by just one party when a contract is signed and agreed upon by two entities. The Korean brand of whisky products said they have been renewing contracts every year since 2018, but since last year, Carlsberg suddenly changed it to short-term contracts.

Golden Blue said that this move is an obvious attempt for the Danish beer brand to establish its own sales unit in the country. For this, it is planning to file a complaint with the Korean Fair Trade Commission. It also suggested that it could file a separate lawsuit to be compensated for losses incurred after Carlsberg changed the terms of their agreement.

“Despite various malicious rumors in the market and difficulties in the market stagnation, GoldenBlue continued to invest manpower and resources,” Korea News Plus quoted Golden Blue as saying in a statement. GoldenBlue has maintained distribution of Carlsberg without any supply gap in the market, even while taking huge losses.”

The company added, “GoldenBlue plans to inform this unfairness of the unilateral contract termination by visiting the Danish embassy, filing a complaint with the Fair-Trade Commission, and filing a legal lawsuit claiming compensation for losses.”