Next-Gen Keurig Brewer May Lock-Out Third-Party Pods (GMCR)

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR) is about to get a little more serious when it comes to third-part K-Cup sales.

According to TechDirt, Green Mountain's Keurig is developing a coffee machine with DRM technology, meaning only its coffee pods will be able to be used in it. The following is from a recent lawsuit filed by Treehouse Foods (NYSE: THS):

Green Mountain has announced a new anticompetitive plan to maintain its monopoly by redesigning its brewers to lock out competitors’ products. Such lock-out technology cannot be justified based on any purported consumer benefit, and Green Mountain itself has admitted that the lock-out technology is not essential for the new brewers’ function. Like its exclusionary agreements, this lock-out technology is intended to serve anticompetitive and unlawful ends.

The device is expected to launch this fall.

Shares of Green Mountain are up 0.2 percent.

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