Brewing Control: the Case of Super Bock

Abstract

Annotation on the Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 29 June 2023 in Case C-211/22 Super Bock Bebidas SA and Others v Autoridade da Concorrência In its judgment of 29 June 2023, following six questions referred for a preliminary ruling, the Court of Justice of the EU provided clarity in dealing with a vertical case involving resale price maintenance (RPM).1 A topic that had already undergone considerable evolution in existing case law, from a phenomenon that was considered as restrictive by object, following among others the Binon case, to a much more nuanced view in which the Court noted that the agreements should be assessed in their appropriate legal and economic context where the restrictive effect should be established first.