Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: EC to investigate Anheuser-Busch’s practices in Belgian beer market, (Jul 1, 2016)

By Michael Menzhuber, J.D., LL.M.

The European Commission (EC) has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (AB InBev) has abused its dominant position on the Belgian beer market by hindering imports of its beer from neighboring countries, in breach of European antitrust rules, the agency announced yesterday.

The EC’s preliminary view is that AB InBev may be pursuing a deliberate strategy to restrict "parallel trade" of its beer from less expensive countries, such as the Netherlands and France, to the more expensive Belgian market. The potentially anti-competitive practices by AB InBev that the EC will investigate are:

• possibly changing the packaging of beer/cans/bottles to make it harder to sell them in other countries; and

• possibly limiting "non-Belgian" retailers access to rebates and key products to prevent them from bringing less expensive beer products to Belgium

These practices could create anticompetitive obstacles to trade within the EU’s Single Market and could breach Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which prohibits the abuse of a dominant position that may affect trade between Member States. The initiation of proceedings by the EC relieves the competition authorities of the Member States of their competence to apply EU competition rules to the practices concerned.

AB InBev and the competition authorities of the Member States concerned have been informed that the EU has opened proceedings in this case. There is no legal deadline for bringing an antitrust investigation to an end. The duration of an investigation depends upon a number of factors, including the complexity of the case, the cooperation of the undertakings with the EU, and the exercise of the rights of defense.

Companies: Anheuser-Busch InBev SA

News: Antitrust