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The European Commission has opened an investigation into Red Bull to establish whether the energy drinks giant illegally restricted competition.
The commission, the EU’s top antitrust enforcer, will assess whether Red Bull has breached European competition rules by abusing its dominant market position.
Brussels said it suspected Red Bull may have developed a Europe-wide strategy to restrict competition from energy drinks larger than 250ml in supermarkets and petrol stations, particularly in the Netherlands.
This strategy allegedly targeted the energy drinks sold by Red Bull’s closest competitor, the commission said, without naming that competitor.
The commission is investigating whether Red Bull has granted financial or other incentives to stop selling competitors’ large energy drinks or to place those products, for example by putting them in less visible areas of shops.
It also suspects Red Bull may have misused its position as category manager, in which it oversaw the marketing of a category of products for retailers, to delist or disadvantage competing drinks.
“We want to see if these practices may be keeping prices high and limiting choice of energy drinks for consumers,” the EU’s competition commissioner Teresa Ribera said. “This investigation is part of the commission’s continued efforts to enforce competition rules in the food supply chain to the benefit of European consumers.”
The probe follows earlier unannounced inspections at Red Bull’s headquarters and other locations in March 2023.
The company challenged those raids at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, arguing they were disproportionate and not sufficiently backed by concrete suspicions of anti-competitive behaviour.
The company also argued the probe was influenced too much by information from Monster Energy, one of its rivals. That challenge failed last month.
Red Bull faces a fine of up to 10 per cent of its annual turnover if it is found to have breached European competition rules.
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