European Commission fines AB InBev
for abuse of dominance
The European Commission has fined Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (AB InBev) EUR200
million for unlawfully restricting cheaper imports of its Jupiler beer into Belgium.
The Commission found that AB InBev pursued a strategy of restricting
wholesalers and grocers from accessing cheaper products and that the objective
of this strategy was to maintain higher prices in Belgium by limiting imports
of cheaper products from the Netherlands.
This strategy was implemented by restricting access to discounts,
changing product packaging and limiting volumes.
The penalty reflects a reduction of 15% due to AB InBev’s cooperation
with the Commission’s investigation and admission of the violation. AB InBev has also committed to ensure that
its product packaging for products in Belgium, France and the Netherlands will
include mandatory information in Dutch and French for the next five years to
ensure cross-border supplies.
While it is legitimate, even for a dominant company, to label products
for a specific country it appears that in this case the Commission found evidence
that the strategy was designed to limit parallel imports.
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