On November 16, 2000, Coca-Cola settled a class-action racial discrimination case with 2,200 current and former African-American employees. It was estimated they received an average of $40,000 each, a total of $192.5 million. Along with the settlement, a court-appointed task force was named to monitor Coca-Cola and its annual report will soon be released. The case was expected to be a landmark for civil and employee rights, but some experts say it had little or no impact on the corporate world. Mostly because the factors that shaped the case were unique to Coke, including susceptibility to bad publicity which gave an incentive to settle.
See "Coke bias case still a warning", Scott Leith, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 14, 2004