Beer Cartel Fine Upheld
Antitrust Review enjoys several vices innocent pleasures; foremost among them, as recently disclosed, is a fondness for quality beer.
Thus, we feel obliged to note that the European Court of Justice upheld a 42.4 million Euro fine on Groupe Danone as a result of cartel activity in the Belgian beer market. Forbes.com also reports that:
According to the commission, Danone unit Alken-Maes was involved in various market-sharing arrangements with Interbrew (now InBev), another key player in the brewing industry, between 1993-1998. Their alleged activities included a general pact on investments, advertising, customer allocation, price-fixing and the exchange of information on monthly sales volumes. … A spokesman for EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said the ruling is significant as it is the first time the ECJ has ‘clearly confirmed the commission’s policy of increasing fines for repeat offenders’.
Now, if we can just do something about better distribution of Duff.
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