Macedonian Thrace Brewery is seeking monetary damages for Heineken’s alleged unfair practices.
Last week, they filed a $105.7 million lawsuit in Amsterdam against Heineken and its Greek subsidiary Athenian Brewery, accusing the company of allegedly bullying retailers and bars across Greece into stocking its products.
The lawsuit, which was filed on February 24, claimed that Heineken and Athenian Brewery have engaged in unfair trade practices that keeps them at the top of the Greek beer market with shares as high as 70 percent over the past 15 years, Court House News reported.
“For decades Heineken has been acting like a giant bully who’ll stop at nothing to get its way,” Demetri Politopoulos, founder and CEO at Macedonian Thrace Brewery, said in an official statement.
“It has been illegally distorting the Greek beer market while protecting the supremacy it wields, by coercing and intimidating distributors, retailers and wholesalers, and ultimately ripping off consumers.”
The Macedonian Thrace Brewery lawsuit comes after a 12-year investigation by the Hellenic Competition Commission that found Athenian Brewery in breach of Greek and EU competition law. The commission eventually fined the brewers $33.3 million and ordered them to stop unfair practices or be fined $10,500 a day.
According to Court House News, Heineken and Athenian Brewery have announced they plan to appeal the lawsuit.
