Bengaluru court orders e-waste firm to pay Coca-Cola Rs 45 lakh after 3-year GST fight

A Commercial Court in Bengaluru has ordered an e-waste recycling company to pay Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Rs 45.2 lakh, plus 12% annual interest, after ruling against it in a dispute stretching back to 2023.

The case centres on an agreement signed in March 2023 between Coca-Cola’s Kodigehalli Gate facility and Hin Green E-Waste Recycling Pvt Ltd, a Uttar Pradesh-based company that took on exclusive responsibility for collecting, removing and disposing of e-waste from every Coca-Cola office and facility across India.

The trouble started with a GST rate change. Invoices for financial year 2022-23 had been raised at 5%, but Coca-Cola found on reviewing its annual returns that the rate had actually been revised to 18%, retrospective from 18 July. It sent the recycler a corrected scrap-item table, followed by a credit note and revised debit note.

Coca-Cola also emailed a reminder asking the recycler to claim input tax credit before its October 2023 return filing. The recycler acknowledged the email and promised further details ‘in due course’, but nothing came of it. By 20 March 2024, it had flatly denied owing anything.

With Rs 45.2 lakh still outstanding, Coca-Cola sent a legal notice on 15 July 2025, which went unanswered. A pre-institution mediation attempt then collapsed when the recycler failed to turn up, and the matter was recorded as a ‘non-starter’.

Coca-Cola filed suit in March 2026. The recycler appeared through counsel but filed no written statement of defence. 85th additional city civil and sessions judge Arjun S Mallur, hearing the matter at the Commercial Court, found the unchallenged evidence established the recycler’s liability and ordered it to pay the dues with interest and costs.

Wikimedia Commons/by M0tty