VIENNA, March 19, 2026 — Austria’s largest brewer has overhauled its distribution agreements with logistics partners in response to competition concerns, prompting the country’s antitrust authority to scale back part of its case.
Brau Union Österreich said it has introduced new framework contracts with beverage distributors to replace longstanding partnership arrangements challenged by the Bundeswettbewerbsbehörde (BWB).
The changes follow allegations that previous arrangements may have restricted competition, including potential limitations on partners’ ability to sell competing products.
Under the new agreements, logistics partners are free to determine their product range, customers and sales territories independently, and are no longer subject to exclusivity clauses, information-sharing requirements or restrictions on working with rival brewers.
The brewer also committed to avoiding the exchange of competitively sensitive information and to refraining from imposing sanctions or restrictions that could distort competition.
The BWB said the measures are sufficient to address its concerns regarding future conduct, leading it to withdraw its request for behavioural remedies before the cartel court. However, the authority is maintaining its request for fines related to alleged past infringements.
The case now focuses on potential abuses of market dominance and cartel violations between July 2002 and July 2025.
Brau Union said the commitments were made voluntarily and do not constitute an admission of wrongdoing. It has also strengthened its internal compliance programme to align with competition law.
The development marks a partial resolution of one of Austria’s أبرز competition cases in the beverage distribution sector, while leaving open the question of potential financial penalties for past conduct.
