Brussels, 30/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has announced that it is closing the probe concerning Interbrew's practices towards Belgian beer wholesalers, because Interbrew has now offered a series of commitments to adjust these practices in such a way that they are no longer anti-competitive. The Commission's investigation, launched in 1999, found that the rebates Interbrew offered, depending on the total volume of each type of beer ordered over a one year reference period were anti-competitive. Interbrew has agreed to make its system transparent (wholesalers were not informed about how it operated). Interbrew will also amend another rebate system which is available for wholesalers who are prepared to sell the various types of Interbrew beer in their own tied retail outlets. Here too, there are separate rebates per hectolitre for each type of Interbrew beer which the wholesaler accepts to sell in its tied outlets. In future, these rebates will no longer be progressive, i.e. they will no longer increase with the number of the wholesaler's tied outlets but represent a fixed amount per hectolitre of a particular type of beer, whatever the number of tied outlets. Interbrew will continue to provide management support to wholesalers with whom it has entered into a partnership agreement. However, Interbrew will no longer have a so-called pre-emption right ("right of first refusal"). This is a right to block a competitor's bid for the purchase of the wholesaler's business and to make its own bid instead. Moreover, Interbrew will no longer have access to the wholesalers' confidential business data. With regard to commercial agreements with wholesalers, whereby Interbrew grants wholesalers a number of incentives (e.g. financial support, gadgets) mainly in return for promotional activities. Interbrew has agreed to abolish any product exclusivity requirement, make the eligibility criteria fully transparent and clarify that the same incentives are open to all wholesalers without exception. Interbrew will terminate its only remaining distribution agreement with a competitor (Haacht). According to this agreement, certain Interbrew beers have benefited so far from exclusive access to the retail outlets tied to that brewer.