Coca-Cola urged Heineken to adhere to the old contract but Heineken refused to do so. After the two partners could not reach an agreement on the matter, they started in November 2017 an arbitration case ( inside.beer, 17.11.2017 ) which Heineken lost in October 2019. Still, the case was not settled and in January 2020 in an action filed at the São Paulo Court of Justice, Coca-Cola Brasil asked for the annulment of the purchase of Brasil Kirin by Bavaria, a company also owned by Heineken. The plaintiffs justified their claim that Bavaria was a company that existed only on paper to circumvent Coca-Cola's distribution rights for Heineken's alcoholic beverages until 2022, as guaranteed in a mutual contract. ( inside.beer, 24.1.2020 ) Mauricio Giamellaro, president of the Heineken Group in Brazil, commented: "I am very pleased to redesign our distribution partnership with the Coca-Cola System in Brazil.