Price Fixing Conviction
On April 18, 2007 The European commission imposed punitive fines on three major European breweries for operating a price fixing cartel in the Netherlands. The three were Heineken (€219.3m), Grolsch (€31.65m) and Bavaria (€22.85m). A fourth participant in the cartel, InBev (formerly Interbrew), escaped without a penalty because it provided "decisive information" about the cartel's operations between 1996 and 1999, as well as about others in the EU market. These four brewers had controlled 95% of the Dutch market, with Heineken claiming a half and the three others 15% each.
EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said she was "very disappointed" that the collusion took place at the very highest (boardroom) level. She stated, "This is simply unacceptable: that major beer suppliers colluded to up prices and to carve up markets among themselves. She added, "Heineken, Grolsch, Bavaria and InBev tried to cover their tracks by using code names and abbreviations for secret meetings to carve up the market for beer sold to supermarkets, hotels, restaurants and cafes. The price fixing extended to cheaper own-brand labels and rebates for bars.
Read more about this topic: Bavaria Brewery (Netherlands)
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