The legal victory by Macedonian Thrace Brewery over Heineken in the Netherlands, with €111 million in compensation awarded, marks the culmination of a long-running dispute centred on the Greek beer market. Heineken said it disagreed with the reasoning behind the ruling and intended to appeal. For Dimitris Politopoulos, founder of the Komotini-based brewery that makes Vergina beer, the ruling vindicates a decades-long struggle. It does not, however, mean the fight is over.
“The situation in the market is worse than the one we faced,” the businessman said yesterday, maintaining that Greece’s beer market still does not operate on the basis of free competition.
The dispute stems from an investigation by the Greek Competition Commission into the period from 2001 to 2014, which found that Athenian Brewery, a Heineken subsidiary, had abused its dominant position. On the basis of that ruling, Macedonian Thrace Brewery filed a damages claim in the Netherlands in 2017, seeking to establish the parent company’s liability as well.
This was followed by years of litigation over the jurisdiction of the Dutch courts, Heineken’s liability, the limitation period for the claims and the amount of the loss. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, raising important questions of EU law.
“The Netherlands, the champion, has been found liable in its own backyard,” commented Lia Athanasiou, professor of commercial law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens’ Law School. Also attending the press conference were lawyers Manos Mastronomolis, a professor at the Athens Law School and an expert in competition law, Grigoris Troufakos, and Stamatis Drakakakis, partner and head of competition law at Zepos & Yannopoulos, as well as Maria Lambadaki.
Lawyer and criminal law expert Grigoris Troufakos spoke about parallel court proceedings in Greece, saying: “The moral satisfaction of David beating Goliath is irreplaceable.” Dimitris Kris, Vergina’s corporate development director, said it was the second-largest damages award ever made to a claimant in the history of the European Union, after the Google case.
€17 million in legal costs
The cost of this dispute has been particularly high. According to Dimitris Politopoulos, the company has spent €17 million on legal costs over the years, as the case progressed through parallel court proceedings in Greece and the Netherlands.
A key issue in the civil proceedings in the Netherlands was calculating the financial loss caused by exclusionary practices, based on the commercial performance Macedonian Thrace Brewery might have achieved under conditions of free competition. Lost profits and interest carried particular weight in the assessment, as was noted during the press conference.
Mr Politopoulos also said that, since the beer was launched in 1998, successive governments had treated the company with caution. He cited an investment to triple production for which, he said, the company did not receive the subsidy due under the development law, on the grounds that the available funds had been exhausted.
Mr Politopoulos said he had raised the issue with Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos, who, he said, told him that the available budget had been exhausted.
He also criticised tax provisions introduced two years ago which, he said, constrain Vergina’s ability to grow. Specifically, the company’s management says a circular issued two years ago put obstacles in the way of Vergina gradually increasing production while retaining favourable tax treatment for a transitional period.
Mr Politopoulos also claimed that, in a conversation with senior officials at the relevant ministry, he was told the change had been requested by Heineken. “Governments are not anonymous companies and have obligations to citizens,” he said.
Two craft brewers also took part in the press conference, including Fotis Anastasiou, who said that despite the number of craft breweries rising to 80 since 2015, the sector still faced difficulties accessing distribution networks and points of sale.
He said two craft breweries had already closed, and estimated that within the next two years their number could even be cut in half. He also denounced so-called craftwashing.
Meanwhile, in January 2023, the Greek Competition Commission carried out a new unannounced inspection at Athenian Brewery. According to the legal team, the investigation is continuing, with no new infringement found so far.