"Krone" commentary

Beer: The power of the global corporation

This could be expensive: The Austrian Federal Competition Authority is taking Austria's largest brewery company to cartel court. According to the motto: "Watch out, the commissioner is on the loose", documents have been examined for two years and the suspicion of an illegal cartel seems to have been confirmed. But don't worry: the party involved in the investigation is not a local family business, but Heineken, one of the world's largest corporations in this sector.

The accusation: Brau Union (owned by the Heineken Group with its 15 brands such as Gösser, Zipfer, Wieselburger, Kaiser, Reininghaus and Puntigamer) could have exploited its market power with its market share of over 60 percent. Customers who also wanted to sell other beverages or beers had to pay the price. Anyone who wanted to work with the Heineken "daughters" in Austria had to dance to the tune of the Dutch.

Competition is healthy, but the brutal exercise of market power is not. As a market economy, the USA has deliberately created an anti-trust authority. It has already broken up telephone companies and oil giants; in Austria, it is initially about a fine of millions that Heineken could pay out of petty cash.

It would be even more desirable if the cartel watchdogs also took care of arbitrary practices by public providers (water, sewerage, etc.). There is still a lot to do!