The Bundeskartellamt does not have any competition concerns regarding the collective assessment and negotiations by the breweries organised in the association “Die Freien Brauer GmbH & Co. KG” (“Die Freien Brauer” – The free breweries) of the general terms and conditions of purchase with food retailers.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “The cooperation allows small breweries to assess and negotiate general terms and conditions of purchase, which used to be prescribed unilaterally by the food retailers. The breweries, often family-owned, gain a better negotiating position towards the retailers and can, to a certain extent, offset existing competitive disadvantages to large breweries. Specific conditions like prices, price components and sales volumes will continue to be negotiated individually.”

Die Freien Brauer is an association of 39 small family-owned breweries from the federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia. The participating breweries use the association as a service organisation for the legal assessment of food retailers' general terms and conditions of purchase, also with regard to possible unfair commercial practices. The cooperation is thus first and foremost a form of collective “outsourcing” of the legal assessment of the general terms and conditions of purchase.

The breweries are active on regional markets, do not have their own legal departments and have little market significance. Their Germany-wide market shares are below 5%, although they can be higher on the regional level. The breweries are free to decide whether they accept the terms and conditions negotiated with the retailers.

Under these circumstances, the Bundeskartellamt does not have any competition concerns regarding this brewery association.