Archive for the ‘european commission’ tag
Bringing down the Dutch Beer Cartel
The BBC is reporting that the EC Competition Authority has fined a cartel of Dutch brewers (Heineken, Grolsch, and Bavaria) over €273 million. A fourth brewer, InBev, was granted leiniency in exchange for providing information regarding the cartel. The firms were all found to have violated [EC Treaty] Article 81′s prhobitions on restrictive business practice.
According to the BBC, the fine levied against Heineken is the seventh-largest ever; the largest fine to day was imposed against Microsoft. Heineken plans to appeal the fine as “excessive”.
Link to the DG Competition Notice, IP/07/509, Released 18 April 2007.
