Heineken ordered to pay €111 million in damages over Greek antitrust violations

Key Facts

The ruling concerns practices between 1998 and 2014, a period during which the court said MTB suffered lost profits. Heineken said it disagreed with the court’s reasoning and would appeal the decision. The ruling turns a dispute over practices spanning years into a substantial financial obligation for the parent company, with the outcome of the appeal still uncertain.

The amount comprises €43.337 million in damages and €67.887 million in interest calculated through October 1, 2026, according to the ruling. Accrued interest therefore exceeds the principal compensation for lost profits. The difference reflects the length of the period covered by the dispute: the practices at issue date back to 1998, while the interest covers years of litigation through 2026. The ruling also provides for litigation interest to accrue on the principal compensation from October 1, 2026, until full payment. This means the total amount due may change depending on the payment date.

The case concerns the conduct of Athenian Brewery in the Greek beer market between 1998–2014, when the Hellenic Competition Commission concluded that the company had abused its dominant position. The Amsterdam court estimated that MTB lost profits over 16 years as a result of the company’s actions. In 2015, the competition authority imposed a fine of €31.5 million on Athenian Brewery for abusing its dominant position in beer production and distribution. The Athens Administrative Court of Appeal reduced the fine to €26.7 million in 2017. The current ruling concerns civil damages and interest payable to the competitor, not a new fine imposed by the court.

The ruling establishes Heineken’s liability as the parent company in this case, while the conduct attributed directly concerns the Greek market and its subsidiary. The company said it disputed the assumptions used to calculate MTB’s sales, prices and profitability in a hypothetical scenario, as well as the court’s reasoning. It said it intends to appeal the decision, taking the case into a new stage of judicial review. The available information does not provide an outcome of the appeal or a specific date for a decision. The ruling alone also does not establish a new general rule on parent-company liability in the European Union.

In trading, Heineken shares listed under the ticker HEINY closed at $43.30 on October 23, 2026. The shares had closed at $43.88 on October 22, $42.95 on October 21, $43.24 on October 20 and $42.67 on October 19. These closing prices provide context for the share’s movement in recent days, without on their own determining the ruling’s effect on trading. The available data did not include the high or low for the October 23 session.