Economic Analysis Provided For Mythos Brewery in Greek Beer Case

In December 2015, the Hellenic Competition Commission ("HCC") completed its investigation and unanimously concluded that Athenian Brewery, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Heineken NV, had abused its dominant position. It imposed a record fine of €26.7 million on the company. The decision was validated by the Administrative Court of Appeal of Athens in July 2017.

Compass Lexecon assisted the complainant, Mythos Brewery, part of the Carlsberg group, during the investigation by the HCC into Athenian Brewery's alleged abuse of dominance. The abuse by Athenian Brewery involved a number of practices including exclusivity agreements, and targeted and conditional rebates, both at the retail and wholesale levels of the Greek beer market. Our experts submitted an economic report that demonstrated that the Greek beer market was susceptible to abuse and provided evidence of the effects of the abuse. We were also involved in rebutting Athenian Brewery's economic expert report and providing expert economic testimony before the HCC.

The Compass Lexecon team included Jorge Padilla, Justin Coombs, Martina Caldana, Sergey Khodjamirian, and Su-Ann Lim.