Brussels, 04/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Belgian brewery Interbrew (trademarks Stella Artois, Bass and Beck's) which had a turnover of EUR 5.66 million in 2000 may be levied a substantial fine for infringing competition rules by setting up a beer cartel with Alken Maes, another Belgian brewery (subsidiary of the UK's Scottish and Newcastle Plc). The Commission is expected to publish its decision on Tuesday after having carried out investigations at Interbrew's headquarters in the spring of 2000 to gather proof of an agreement to set prices and of an exchange of information between 1993 and 1998. After its investigation, the Commission sent Interbrew a statement of objections at the beginning of October 2000 and Interbrew admitted to having distorted the EU rules but said that it had since taken the necessary steps to rectify the situation. The fine could be in the region of 10% of the two companies' global turnover. The Commission is still investigating other alleged beer cartels in France, the Netherlands, Italy and Denmark.