Heineken ordered to pay €111 million in damages, interest to Greek rival

AMSTERDAM, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Dutch beer company Heineken said on Wednesday a Dutch court had awarded Macedonian Thrace Brewery €111 million ($125 million) in damages and interest in a case it brought against Heineken's Greek subsidiary Athenian Brewery.

Heineken said it disagreed with the reasoning of the court and would appeal the decision, which related to conduct by Athenian Brewery in the Greek beer market between 1998 and 2014.

In 2015, the Greek competition watchdog fined Athenian Brewery €31.5 million for abuse of its dominant position in the production and distribution of beer, a penalty the Athens Administrative Court of Appeal later reduced to €26.7 million in 2017.

In a follow-up case, the Dutch court now awarded MTB €43 million in damages and €68 million in accrued interest.

Heineken said that the damages claim made by MTB had not been realistic, and said the court had made assumptions about MTB's sales, pricing and profitability in a hypothetical scenario.

"Those assumptions should be carefully tested against the available economic evidence and market developments during the relevant period," the brewer said.

"We do not believe the damages awarded adequately reflect those considerations."

MTB said "justice has been served".

"For nearly three decades Heineken has done everything in its power to avoid being held accountable for the damage it has caused MTB, but the Amsterdam District Court's judgment goes a long way in setting the record straight," MTB's Director of Business Development Demetri Chriss said, calling it "one of the most significant milestones in MTB's history."

($1 = 0.8910 euros)

(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Emma Rumney; Editing by Jan Harvey, Tomasz Janowski and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)