Five German beer brewers fined €106m for price fixing

A group of German beer brewers have been fined €106.5m for illegal price-setting agreements.

The Federal Cartel Office said that the companies involved fixed price increases for draught and bottled beer between 2006 and 2008.

Five firms were fined – Bitburger, Krombacher, Veltins, Warsteiner and Barre – along with seven people deemed to be “personally responsible.”

The office said the investigation was launched on the basis of information from the German branch of Anheuser-Busch Inbev , which was not fined as a result of its cooperation.

It says it then reached a settlement with the five breweries that were fined, a move that reduced their punishment.

The office said investigations are ongoing against another six brewers, which it did not identify.