For its involvement in the beer cartel, the Carlsberg brewery has been sentenced to a fine of 50 million euros by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court. The 6th Cartel Senate on Tuesday considered it proven that Hamburg-based Carlsberg Deutschland Holding GmbH was guilty of an antitrust violation when a former managing director took part in an exchange of information on price-sensitive information between leading German breweries in 2007.

The conversation was "partly causal" for the increase in prices by one euro per crate shortly afterwards by Carlsberg and other breweries, said presiding judge Ulrich Egger. Although it does not meet the criteria of prohibited price fixing, it does fulfil that of intentional antitrust offence in the form of concerted conduct.

The verdict was preceded by an agreement between the parties to the trial, which provided for a fine of 45 to 55 million euros. However, Carlsberg's lawyer, Anika Schürmann, expressly rejected the allegations against the company in her closing argument and justified the agreement with the fact that the company finally wanted to draw a line under the incriminating mammoth proceedings.

In 2014, the Bundeskartellamt imposed fines totalling more than 330 million euros on numerous well-known breweries such as Krombacher, Bitburger, Warsteiner, Veltins and Carlsberg for illegal price fixing. At the time, the competition authority demanded 62 million euros from Carlsberg. However, unlike most other breweries, Carlsberg did not accept this and lodged a complaint with the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf. After that, it took five years to come to terms with the legal process of what happened.