Hershey Anti-Competition

Hershey's Chocolate was founded by a man who was dedicated to high quality.  He founded the company in response to a lack of high quality chocolate in the U.S., and his company thrived as it met a high demand for the product.  He is now rolling in his grave.

Hershey's Chocolate was originally a company that competed by maintaining a high standard of quality.  Now, it is a company that competes by lobbying to change laws and by forcing competitors out of business through legal means.  Over the last few decades, Hershey's has worked hard to try to get the legal definition of chocolate changed, so it can market cheaper products as chocolate.  It has repeatedly changed its recipes, consistently lowering the quality of its products to decrease costs and increase profits.  What once was a smooth, rich, high quality chocolate is now coarse, salty, and low quality.  Without changing the law, if the quality of Hershey's chocolate was any lower, they would be forbidden by law from labeling it as "chocolate."

What is worse is that now, Hershey's has used trademark law to push out high quality British chocolates.  Further, Hershey's is trying to get U.S. manufacturing of British chocolate shut down entirely.  Not only is this behavior anti-competitive, it is also depriving American citizens of the ability to obtain decent quality chocolate in the U.S. without very expensive import orders from overseas.

Currently, the company that imports most European chocolate has been forced by Hershey's to sign an agreement not to import any Cadbury products into the U.S., as well as a collection of other chocolates that use similar color schemes or trademark names to Hershey's and its subsidiaries.  Hershey's is also working on getting all Cadbury manufacturing in the U.S. shut down as well.  The company has further convinced many retailers in the U.S. that it is not worth stocking Cadbury products anymore, so don't expect to see any Cadbury eggs on Walmart shelves this Easter.

Hershey's is no longer a quality chocolate producer.  It is a trademark troll that will go to any lengths, no matter how harmful it is to the American people (consider the jobs that will be lost when the Cadbury factories in the U.S. shut down), to increase its profits.  Hershey's chocolate is hardly even edible anymore (if you have ever tried quality European chocolate, you will understand), so there is no loss in not buying it.

I want to call for a nation wide boycott of Hershey's products, until Hershey's terminates their anti-competitive agreements and allows all European chocolate to be imported into the U.S. without reservation.


In the U.S., Hershey's subsidiaries as well as brands and products it is licensed to manufacture and sell include the following list:

• Kit Kat
• Rolo
• Y&S Candies (Twizzler's licorice)
• 5th Avenue Bar
• Many U.S. manufactured Cadbury products (not the gums and mints)
• Leaf Candy Company
• Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation
• Scharffen Berger Chocolate
• Artisan Confections Company
• Dagoba Organic Chocolate
• Brookside Foods Ltd.

Aside from this list, candies produced and marketed by Hershey's will typically have a line on the packaging stating that the brand is owned by Hershey's.  If you want to help bring quality chocolate back to the U.S., please join a boycott of all Hershey's products until the company either goes bankrupt or officially withdraws their objections and terminates their agreements that prevent the import of chocolate from outside the U.S.

If the Hershey's Chocolate company wants to compete in the chocolate market, it should compete fairly, by producing chocolate that is high enough quality to be worth buying and eating.  Of this company cannot do that, it should fail.  We should not allow it to limit our options to low quality products because it refuses to give the American people what they clearly want.