Beer company Anheuser-Busch InBev has been fined for restricting cross-border sales between the Netherlands and Belgium, forcing Belgians to pay more for their beer. The company had been under investigation since 2016.
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The world's largest beer company Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) must pay the European Union €200.4 million ($225 million) for breaching antitrust laws, the European Commission said in a statement on Monday.
The Commission said AB InBev, based in Leuven, Belgium, abused its dominant market position in Belgium by preventing cheaper imports of its own brands from neighboring countries.
The company had been under investigation by the commission since 2016 for suspected violations.
The probe concluded that AB InBev sells its popular beer brands Jupiler and Leffe at higher prices in Belgium than in France and the Netherlands, where the company has fiercer competition.
Jupiler is the most popular beer brand in Belgium, representing about 40% of the total Belgian beer market in terms of sales volume.
"Consumers in Belgium have been paying more for their favorite beer because of AB InBev's deliberate strategy to restrict cross-border sales between the Netherlands and Belgium," said EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
Germany is famous for its beer purity law, which turns 503 years old on April 23, but here are beer varieties that put a twist on tradition.
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Something for everyone
The beers Andre Gifkens and Robyn Anderson of Berlin selected for their specialty store Lager Lager cover a wide range of styles, strengths and flavors. Not all of them conform to the Purity Law, which is why the word "beer" is missing from some labels. Some of them are produced by big companies; others are craft beers brewed by entrepreneurs without corporate backing. All of them are delicious.
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Weisse: A tart treat from northern Germany
We start on the tangy, low-alcohol, refreshing side. Weisse is a wheat beer dating from the 17th century and often drunk with fruit syrup. What gives the drink in its pure form a characteristic sourness is the addition of the bacteria lactobacillus. Friedrich the Great of Prussia learned how to brew it, and Napoleon allegedly dubbed it the "champagne of the North."
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Fruit ale: More than just the basic four
One reason for the Purity Law implemented in 1516 — which limited the makeup of beer to just water, hops, barley, and yeast — was to stop unscrupulous brewers from putting poison in the brew. But there's no intrinsic reason not to add natural ingredients like fruit. Berlin craft brewery Heidenpeter's uses raspberries to create a delectable German take on a Belgian fruit ale.
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Gose: A salty salute from the past
Beer is a thirst-quencher, so the last flavor you might think you'd want in it is salt, but that's indeed one of the key ingredients in the eastern German specialty, Gose. The other is coriander. Combine them with lactobacillus and top-fermenting yeast, and you get a drink that's salty, but doesn't leave you parched.
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Pale ale: Beers hopping borders
It took a long time for the craft beer movement to get to Germany, but when it did, it exploded, eradicating national boundaries. German brewers no longer always focus on bottom-fermenting, filtered pilsners and lagers. Innovative breweries like Berliner Berg are exploring Anglo-American styles like pale ales in all their many varieties.
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Altbier: Innovation and tradition
Despite the prominence of lagers, specialized regional ales go back a long time in Germany. One is Kölsch in Cologne, another is Altbier from the Dusseldorf region. The name means "old beer," but that signifies top fermentation, not mustiness. On the contrary, this red ale is a session beer designed to be drunk in great quantities in brewing pubs like Uerige.
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Smoked beer: The pride of Bamberg
The smoked beers of the Bavarian town of Bamberg are based on a type of lager, but they're worlds away from Beck's. The malt is dried over an open fire, which imparts a smoky aroma and taste to the finished product. You might find Rauchbier off-putting at first, but try a classic like Schlenkerla with a platter of smoked meat, and you'll be in heaven.
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Bockbier: Knocking socks off for 700 years
Most people associate Bockbier with Bavaria, but it originated in the mid-13th century up north in Einbeck, which presumably drunken Bavarians mispronounced as "ein Bock." There's no mistaking the high alcohol content, which starts at six and goes all the way up to 57 percent. That's one reason why the many Bock styles taste more like barley wine than lager.
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Weizendoppelbock: A fireplace companion
You can make a Bockbier out of either a lager or southern Germany's other specialty, Weizen (wheat beer). Using a higher proportion of wheat to barley sweetens the beer, and bumping up the alcohol content makes it an ideal after-dinner treat. The label of this Weizendoppelbock from the Schneider brewery just outside Munich reads "for a great moment in front of the fireplace."
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Schwarzbier and Stout: The force of the dark side
The traditional German Schwarzbier (black beer) is a bottom-fermented lager that gets its deep, dark hue from roasting the malt. But craft breweries like Hanscraft from western Germany are treading different paths and making English-style top-fermented porters and stouts. Their Black Nizza Imperial Stout contains 10 different types of malt and a whopping 9 percent alcohol.
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Strategies used to undercut competitors
The firm used a number of methods to undercut its competitors, including changing the packaging of beer cans so that they did not include both French and Dutch.
That made the products harder to sell in Belgium, where core information on the product is required in both the country's official languages.
AB Inbev also limited the amount of Jupiler beer supplied to a wholesaler in the Netherlands, so as to restrict their ability to send some of it back into Belgium. The company also refused to sell other core products to one retailer in Belgium, unless that retailer agreed to limit its imports of less expensive Jupiler beer from the Netherlands to Belgium.
The company also made customer promotions for beer offered to a retailer in the Netherlands conditional upon the retailer not offering the same deal to its customers in Belgium.
The commission reduced the fine by 15% on the understanding that AB InBev cooperated with investigators and agreed to publish the required food information in both French and Dutch on product packaging for the next five years in Belgium, France and the Netherlands.