The Court of Justice upheld €198 million and €20.71 million fine imposed by the European Commission respectively on Heineken and on Bavaria NV for their participation in a cartel on the Dutch beer market.

More than €273 million fine was imposed on several Dutch brewers on April 2007. The infringement found by the Commission consisted of the coordination of prices and price increases for beer and the allocation of customers, both in the on-trade segment and in the off-trade segment in the Netherlands, and the occasional coordination of other commercial conditions offered to individual on-trade customers in the Netherlands from 1996 to 1999. Heineken NV and its subsidiary – Heineken Nederland BV – and Bavaria NV brought appeals to wipe out the heavily fines (€219.28 million on Heineken NV and €22.85 million on Bavaria NV). By judgments of December 2012, the Court of Justice, announced that the fines on Heineken will be reduced to €198 million. Also the Court confirmed a €20.71 million on Bavaria NV for its participation in the same cartel.

Lastly, the Court of Justice rejected Heineken’s argument that the General Court, before ruling of the cases, should have first ruled on another case related to same cartel in which the General Court held that the brewer, Koninklijke Grolsch, had not participated in the cartel at issue. The Court of Justice announced that the fact that the infringement could not attributed to Koninklijke Grolsch but should have been attributed to its subsidiary, is irrelevant as regards the infringement committed by Heineken.