AB InBev, Carlsberg Among Beer Companies Under Price-Fixing Investigation

GERMANYRoughly a dozen breweries including Anheuser-Busch InBev are said to be under investigation by German authorities because they are suspected of fixing the prices of beer for nearly two decades.

Other breweries under investigation include the multinational company Carlsberg as well as family-owned businesses such as Erdinger and Bitburger Brewing Group, Bloomberg Businessweek wrote, citing a news report from the German weekly Focus.

The Federal Cartel Office's probe, brought to light by Focus, reportedly could lead to fines totaling hundreds of millions of euros and expose a price-fixing scandal that endured for a much longer period of time than authorities had initially suspected.  

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, AB InBev noted the proceedings were confidential and declined to comment further while Carlsberg confirmed authorities had contacted the company, adding: "We take this matter very seriously." 

In a separate price-fixing scandal in North America, Hershey Canada Inc. recently was fined $4 million after it admitted to conspiring to fix the prices of chocolate confectionary products in 2007. Canada's Competition Bureau has brought criminal charges against a number of other companies and individuals, including Nestlé Canada Inc. and Mars Canada Inc. The defendants, if convicted of an offense under a former conspiracy provision of Canada's Competition Act, could face fines of up to $10 million and/or prison for up to 5 years.