The European Commission (EC) has opened an investigation, suo moto , 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 EU antitrust rules. The EC will investigate further to establish whether its initial concerns are confirmed; its preliminary view is that AB InBev may be pursuing a deliberate strategy to restrict so-called 'parallel trade' of its beer from less expensive countries, such as the Netherlands and France, to the more expensive Belgian market. In particular, the EC will investigate certain potentially anti-competitive practices by AB InBev such as:
- Possibly changing the packaging of beer cans/bottles to make it harder to sell them in other countries;
- Possibly limiting "non-Belgian" retailers' access to rebates and key products to prevent them from bringing less expensive beer products to Belgium.
If established, such behaviors would create anti-competitive obstacles to trade within the EU's Single Market and breach Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
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