Getting stuck with the beer tab.

last updated 8 January 2015

Netherlands

Luuk Kortekaas

Dutch beer drinkers are in a lather, said Luuk Kortekaas in Amsterdam’s Algemeen Dagblad. The E.U. has just slapped fines on prominent Dutch brewers Heineken, Grolsch, and Bavaria for price fixing. The three formed an illegal cartel in the 1990s that would still be merrily overcharging if it hadn’t been ratted out by InBev, a Belgian beer consortium. Now that the truth has been exposed, drinkers have begun adding up the damages—no small task. “I’ve been coming to the same bar since I was 16,” said Rob, 44, a maintenance engineer. “Often I’ve dropped 100 guilders [$56] a week there.” So far nobody has launched a lawsuit against the brewers, since “it would be tough to prove how much any given plaintiff drank.” But anger is palpable all across the country. “A draft beer costs around $2.40,” says one bartender. “That’s a lot of money for three gulps,” particularly considering that beer is a workingman’s drink. Asked one bitter boozer, “Did you know who’s the richest man in the Netherlands? Alfred Heineken.”