The European Court of Justice upheld a 2005 price fixing verdict against the French company Danone. A fine of €42.4 million ($54.2 million U.S.) was imposed after being found guilty of participating in a Belgian beer cartel in which one of their subsidiaries — Alken-Maes — colluded with InBev (then still Interbrew) to control pricing in the Belgian beer market. According to the EU’s prosecution, the two companies “struck a general non-aggression pact to fix retail prices, to share information on sales volumes and to limit investments and advertising in hotels, restaurants and cafes from 1993 to 1998.”
This was Danone’s second such fine, the first being in 2004 when the EU fined them €1.5 million ($1.95 million U.S.) for a similar scheme in France with Heineken (who owned 30% of the French market). At that time, Danone also owned Kronenbourg, which had 40% of the French beer market.
In 2000, Danone sold off all of it’s breweries, French and Belgian, to the British Scottish & Newcastle.
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Sippin' on the Dock of the Bay
National Homebrewers Conference
June 18-20, 2009
Oakland, (yes, Oakland), California
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