Top executives of Carlsberg, SABMiller and India＊s United Breweries (UB) exchanged commercially sensitive information and colluded to fix beer prices in over 11 years, according to a government antitrust investigation report seen by Reuters.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in 2018 raided the offices of the three brewers and started an inquiry.?
The investigation＊s findings 每 which are not a final judgment of wrongdoing 每 cast a shadow on the brewers, which account for 88 per cent of India＊s US$7 billion beer market.
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Senior CCI members will consider the report, drafted in March, as they decide on fines, which could exceed USS 250 million, two sources familiar with the case said.
Here's what people had to say about the beer price fixing:?
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Executives＊ conversations, WhatsApp messages and emails contained in the report show the companies regularly and collectively strategised in seeking price increases in ※several states§.
They forged a cartel, the CCI said, and that gave them more bargaining power with state authorities.??
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The companies also used the All India Brewers Association (AIBA) as a ※common platform§ to decide collectively on prices; and the local group then lobbied on the companies＊ behalf for price increases, the CCI report found.
At least three times, executives exchanged messages urging one another to keep their plans quiet, the report showed.
Tax earnings on alcohol also form a major part of state revenue in India, and the investigation said the beer companies had held talks at least three times between 2015 and 2018 to create artificial scarcity and pressure governments on policy changes. India's antitrust law says such agreements are anti-competitive.
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Carlsberg told the CCI that after a pricing policy change in eastern Odisha state in 2015, all companies "decided to limit supply of beer."
One early 2018 internal e-mail from Carlsberg's vice president for growth markets at the time, Nilesh Patel, refers to a similar strategy deployed in Maharashtra state.
A fall in the state's sales in 2017 "was primarily driven by conscious decision" by UB and Carlsberg to "starve the market post Excise (tax) hike", Patel wrote.
All Inputs Reuters