Kenya: Beer bottle war spills to the floor of the Senate

By Brian Ambani

The war pitting beer makers in Kenya against each other over use and control of a particular type of bottle is far from over.

Minor players have over the years been pointing fingers at East African Breweries Limited (EABL) for engraving this type of bottle with its trademark bottling out rivals.

This has led to long-winding legal battle on whether EABL is legally allowed to do so. In January this year, High Court Judge Grace Nzioka ruled that EABL had the right to collect and package their beer brands in their embossed bottles pending determination of a case in which six beer distributors affiliated to Keroche Breweries had challenged the move.

They termed the action unfair trade practice geared at driving them out of business. Distributors also alleged harassment by police but EABL, through argued that the embossment is done at the point of manufacture by the glass maker.

Bottles used by Keroche are similar hence can be substituted by brewers.

Euro bottle design

Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) Director-General Wangombe Kariuki said it has found that EABL is the primary consumer of Consol Glass's glass products including the contested Euro design while Keroche also buys its bottles there but is not a major customer.

A court in 2016 court ruled that the Euro bottle design is universal, and thus no single brewer has any intellectual property claim over it.

Now, the Senate has waded into the wars and called for legislation that will close the gaps used to ostensibly dominate the sector.

Mr Wangombe told Senate that it has found EABL, through its Kenyan subsidiary Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL) to be a dominant player in beer sale, and controls about 90 percent of the market.

A spokesperson for EABL declined to comment citing an ongoing court case.

Nominated Senator Petronila Were last week asked Senate Committee on Trade to probe the competition watchdog on the matter.

Mr Kariuki, in his submission to Senate, said the authority has variously investigated EABL over engraving of bottles but has not yet made determination on whether the firm's conduct violated the Competition Act, citing pending court cases filed by various interested parties.

Mr Wangombe said Keroche, despite being the key interested party in the matter, was not collaborating in giving information that would help in the matter when asked by the regulator to provide samples of the contested bottle.

This article was originally published by Daily Nation. [Photo: Nation Media Group/Francis Nderitu]