Heineken has offered cash advances to pubs in exchange for excluding rival drinks from their premises, a submission to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has claimed.
The submission was made to the watchdog as part of its probe into the merger of Heineken’s distribution business with the independent distributor Comans. It alleges that the group was engaging in “aggressive behaviour” to the detriment of smaller drinks companies. The CCPC did not release the name of the complainant but published extracts of the submission last week.
The document alleges that Heineken makes “cash advances to pubs in return for the pubs committing to stock Heineken products to the exclusion of competing products”.
“We have seen the level of this activity by Heineken increase significantly in the past 12 months and it now has these exclusive arrangements with a number of pubs, particularly in Dublin,” it stated.
It was claimed that the merger with Comans had the potential to block access to pubs for small craft brewers.
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The CCPC found that the ability of Heineken Ireland to block competing drinks companies was “not merger specific”. It also said that if Heineken had engaged in the alleged activities, the effect had been limited to a small number of pubs and there was no evidence that Heineken had been successful in restricting rival manufacturers or brewers.
A spokeswoman for Heineken Ireland said: “We welcome the CCPC’s conclusion that having considered all issues involved, including the comment by a third party, there was no competition issue and the transaction was cleared unconditionally in phase one by the CCPC.”