Belgian Competition Authority Rejects Request For Suspension Of Merger In The Brewing Sector

On 21 November 2016, the Competition College of the Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") rejected a request of Brouwerijen Alken-Maes ("Alken-Maes") to suspend the acquisition of Brouwerij Bosteels ("Bosteels") by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV ("AB InBev").

AB InBev's takeover of Bosteels was not subject to prior notification to, and approval by, the BCA since Bosteel is a small independent brewery with a turnover in Belgium well below the pertinent notification threshold of € 40 million.

Alken-Maes still requested the suspension of the acquisition and argued before the BCA that even if this acquisition was not caught by merger control rules, it had to be reviewed under Article IV.2 of the Code of Economic Law and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, both of which prohibit the abuse of a dominant position. Alken-Maes contended that the acquisition constituted an abuse of AB InBev's dominant position as it would enable AB InBev to acquire