Political Factors
Political factors include government policies, legislation and foreign influences. The political factor influencing Starbucks are as follows:
Carr v. Starbucks Corporation and Shields v. Starbucks Corp
The political condition of Starbucks is not good as it should be. They are being blamed for the violation of wage and hour laws. Starbucks has two pending class-action lawsuits filed by Starbucks, California, employees for being improperly denied overtime pay. Starbucks’s is denying all liabilities in these cases, however; the company has agreed to the settlement in order to take care of all of the plaintiffs’ claims without having to get involved in any protracted litigation. Now Starbucks is paying $18 million for the settling of the lawsuit case.
Kraft and Starbucks in billion-dollar legal fight
Again Starbucks is in news for it’s within termination of the 12-year contract with Kraft. In 1998 Kraft and Starbucks entered into a retail grocery coffee business, which at the time was generating less than $50 million in annual revenues. Since then, the business has grown to approximately $500 million. This joint venture has marked a major shift for Starbucks' consumer-packed business, a key building block in Chief Executive Howard Schultz's strategy to drive future growth for the nation's largest coffee-shop chain. For the violation of the contract again Starbucks would have to payout large amount as compensation.