EEOC Files Lawsuit Against Coca-Cola Distributor Over Women-Only Event
The EEOC announced Tuesday that Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast violated federal law by hosting an exclusively female two-day event for approximately 250 employees at a Connecticut casino in September 2024, deliberately excluding all male staff from participation.
The lawsuit states that "Coca-Cola Northeast privately invited female employees and then excused the female employees, who attended the event from their normal work duties on September 10 and 11, 2024, and paid them their normal salary or wages without requiring them to use vacation or other paid time off," while no male employees received an invitation.
The case is doubly significant — it represents not only the EEOC's first lawsuit targeting workplace diversity programs since Trump returned to the White House, but also the first of its kind to assert that such events are inherently unlawful.
Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Kirin Holdings, has declined to issue any statement in response to the legal action. The Coca-Cola multinational parent company is not named as a defendant.
The lawsuit arrives amid a sweeping rollback of corporate diversity initiatives across the United States. Shortly after returning to office in early 2025, Trump signed a series of executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion — or DEI — programs, branding them as "radical" and moving to eliminate them across the federal government, its contractors, and grant recipients.
The backlash has reverberated throughout the private sector. Major corporations including Walt Disney, JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, and Google have all faced mounting legal and political pressure over their DEI commitments, prompting many to significantly scale back or wholly dismantle such programs.
The EEOC has shown no signs of easing its scrutiny of corporate diversity practices. Earlier this month, the agency launched a separate investigation into sportswear titan Nike, probing allegations that the company discriminated against white employees.
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