Brussels, 05/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the British competition authorities and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Stephen Byers prohibited the purchase of the brewing activities of the British group Bass by Belgium's Interbrew, fearing the constitution on the British market of a duopoly with Scottish and Newcastle that would have led to a rise in prices. They thus forced the Belgian group to sell these activities to a third party.
Responding to the question as to whether the United Kingdom could alone take the decision on whether or not to approve the new taker, Amelia Torres, spokesperson for Commissioner Monti responsible for competition, answered in the following terms: "Firstly, it seems to me that the question is of knowing who could examine the sale of Bass (Brewers). Acquisition of Bass would be a completely new deal. If the new deal met the required threshold, it would certainly be examined by the European Commission", she stipulated.
You may recall that the European Commission had sent back the Bass/Interbrew issue to the British competition authorities, Community law permitting such a move of returning a case to national authorities when the operation is limited to distinct markets on the territory of a Member State (see EUROPE of 24 August, p.3). Belgian Economy minister Charles Picque told the Belgian press that he was "concerned at the particularly prejudicial consequences of such a decision for the companies concerned". Furthermore, in an interview with the Belgian daily Le Soir, the former competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert, for his part, regarded as "wholly disproportionate" the decision to impose on Interbrew the pure and simple sale of Bass that would reduce the Belgian company's market share in Britain "to next to nothing". The British authorities should have forced Interbrew, which would have had a 32% market share had the operation been approved, to reduce this share to a threshold below 25.27 or 28%, said Van Miert, stressing that that was how the European Commission proceeded. Amelia Torres said that Commissioner Monti would "listen to and respond to questions Belgium may have to raise on this issue next week"