- Amsterdam District Court will decide how much Heineken N.V. has to pay to Macedonian Thrace Brewery (MTB) for years of anti-competitive conduct in the Greek beer market
- Hearing this week marks the culmination of a decade-long dispute, and follows multiple rulings that confirmed Heineken’s liability and the Netherlands as the proper forum for the claim
- MTB’s follow-on damages claim, initially filed in 2017, has withstood all procedural attempts by Heineken to dodge liability for the actions of Athenian Brewery, its Greek subsidiary
- Athenian Brewery, was fined €31.5 million by Greece’s competition authority for unlawfully pressuring wholesalers and retailers to favour its brands
- The case is being closely watched by independent brewers across Europe, with MTB seeking more than €180 million in damages from the beer giant.
AMSTERDAM–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#ECJ–Amsterdam District Court’s will this week determine the amount in compensation owed by Heineken N.V. to Macedonian Thrace Brewery (MTB) for the proven anti-competitive conduct of its Greek subsidiary, Athenian Brewery.
Tuesday’s hearing follows years of legal wrangling in the Netherlands and Greece and numerous failed attempts by Heineken to get the case thrown out. A succession of rulings over the past 18 months have confirmed Heineken’s liability and established that MTB was right to pursue redress before the Dutch courts.
In February this year, the European Court of Justice ruled that Heineken and its 98.8% owned subsidiary, Athenian Brewery, constituted a single economic undertaking that infringed EU competition law – a finding which was sufficient to establish the Netherlands as the proper jurisdiction to hear MTB’s claims. That decision was reaffirmed by the Opinion of the Advocate General at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands issued on 17 October 2025.
MTB is seeking more than €180 million from Heineken, with interest to date already amounting to roughly half the claim’s value and still accruing. A final ruling on the amount Heineken will have to pay is expected in the first half of 2026.
Heineken faces similar claims from other competitors, most notably Carlsberg, which is seeking more than €300 million in a near-identical action also arising from anti-competitive practices in the Greek market. Competition authorities across Europe and beyond have also investigated or penalised Heineken subsidiaries for anti-competitive practices.
In Austria, Heineken’s subsidiary Brau Union stands accused of abusing their dominant market position. The Austrian competition authority found in 2023 that Brau Union had engaged in practices “that restrict the sales opportunities and market entry of competing brewers and oust existing drinks retailers from the market.”
During the most recent session of the Vienna Cartel Court in September, Heineken argued that its Austrian arm operates independently – a claim widely questioned in the Austrian media after internal correspondence surfaced in which Brau Union’s own former legal counsel appeared to write that the brewer was “controlled by Heineken”. Given the scale of Brau Union’s market abuse, the final penalty could be up to 10% of Heineken’s global turnover generated in the preceding business year.
These issues add to the mounting pressure on Heineken’s chief executive, Dolf van den Brink, as legal troubles converge with rapidly declining beer sales and growing investor unease.
Demetri Chriss, Director of Business Development at MTB, said:
“The day of reckoning for Heineken is fast approaching in the Amsterdam District Court, and we’re confident that our groundbreaking case will inspire others to seek justice.”
The case will be heard all day on Tuesday 11 November by the Amsterdam District Court, located at Parnassusweg 280, 1076 AV Amsterdam.
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