CCI raids United Breweries, Carlsberg, AB InBev over price-fixing charges

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has raided the offices of India's United Breweries, Denmark's Carlsberg and the world's largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) as part of an investigation of price-fixing allegations.

Search and seizure operations were conducted by the anti-trust watchdog at the offices of three top beer companies in at least two Indian cities.

CCI has been conducting an antitrust investigation of the three companies for the past year. The government said that the raids found email exchanges which showed that the companies were fixing prices. 

A spokesman for AB InBev in India said, "It would not be appropriate for us to comment at this time."

"We take antitrust compliance very seriously. Integrity and ethics are part of our core values, embodied in our company culture. Our Code of Business Conduct makes clear that our employees must understand and comply with all applicable competition laws," the spokesman added.