In December 2001, the Belgian Commission imposed fines on several companies for a total amount of over EUR 91M for having taken part in two secret and separate agreements regarding the Belgian brewery market. The infringements consist of market sharing, price fixing and information exchange. The investigation began in 1999 after a search carried out at Belgian brewery Interbrew, Alken-Maes and the Confederation des Brasseries de Belgique, during which the commission had seized evidence showing they were indeed, two separate agreements. The parties to the first agreement were Interbrew & Alken-Maes and Danone, the parent company of the latter at the time. These companies had concluded several anti-competitive agreements between 1993 and 1998.
