Brewers Fined For Operating Netherlands Cartel

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

19 April 2007

The European Commission on Wednesday announced that it has fined the Dutch brewers Heineken, Grolsch and Bavaria a total of EUR 273,783,000 for operating a cartel in the beer market in the Netherlands, in clear violation of Article 81 of the EC Treaty, which outlaws restrictive business practices.

In addition to the three breweries, the Commission's decision named the InBev group, which also participated in the cartel.

According to the EC, between at least 1996 and 1999, the four brewers held numerous unofficial meetings, during which they coordinated prices and price increases of beer in the Netherlands.

InBev received no fines as they provided decisive information about the cartel under the Commission’s leniency programme.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes observed that:

"It is unacceptable that the major beer suppliers colluded to hike up prices and carve up the market between themselves. The highest management of these companies knew very well that their behaviour was illegal, but they went ahead anyway and tried to cover their tracks."

After the Commission, on its own initiative, uncovered a cartel on the Belgian beer market, InBev provided information under the auspices of the Commission's leniency policy that it was also involved in cartels in other European countries. This led to surprise inspections on brewers in France, Luxembourg, Italy and the Netherlands.

These investigations led to decisions condemning cartels in Belgium (upheld by the Court of First Instance and the European Court of Justice), France (not appealed) and Luxembourg (upheld by the CFI). The Italian investigation was closed without charges being brought.

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