have recourse against the general credit of the Company, regardless of whether they are accounted for as consolidated entities. 

The information presented above reflects the impact of the Company's adoption of accounting guidance issued by the FASB related to VIEs in June 2009. This accounting guidance resulted in a change in our accounting policy effective January 1, 2010. Among other things, the guidance requires more qualitative than quantitative analyses to determine the primary beneficiary of a VIE, requires continuous assessments of whether an enterprise is the primary beneficiary of a VIE, enhances disclosures about an enterprise's involvement with a VIE, and amends certain guidance for determining whether an entity is a VIE. 

Beginning January 1, 2010, we deconsolidated certain entities as a result of this change in accounting policy. These entities are primarily bottling operations and had previously been consolidated due to certain loan guarantees and/or other financial support given by the Company. These financial arrangements, although not significant to our consolidated financial statements, resulted in a disproportionate relationship between our voting interests in these entities and our exposure to the economic risks and potential rewards of the entities. As a result, we determined that we held a majority of the variable interests in these entities and, therefore, were deemed to be the primary beneficiary in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States as of December 31, 2009. Although these financial arrangements resulted in us holding a majority of the variable interests in these VIEs, the majority of these arrangements did not empower us to direct the activities of the VIEs that most significantly impact the VIEs' economic performance. Consequently, subsequent to the change in accounting policy, the Company deconsolidated the majority of these VIEs. 

The entities that have been deconsolidated accounted for less than 1 percent of net income attributable to shareowners of The Coca-Cola Company in 2009, and we have accounted for these entities under the equity method of accounting since January 1, 2010. Although the deconsolidation of these entities impacted individual line items in our consolidated financial statements, the impact on net income attributable to shareowners of The Coca-Cola Company in future periods will be nominal. The equity method of accounting is intended to be a single line consolidation and, therefore, generally should result in the same net income attributable to the investor as would be the case if the investee had been consolidated. The main impact on our consolidated financial statements in 2010 was that, instead of these entities' results of operations and balance sheets affecting our consolidated line items, our proportionate share of net income or loss from these entities was reported in equity income (loss) — net, in our consolidated income statements, and our investment in these entities was reported as equity method investments in our consolidated balance sheets. Refer to the heading "Structural Changes and New License Agreements" for additional information.