For decades, the Swiss beer market was dominated by a cartel. Its collapse ushered in a period of upheaval and innovation. Twenty-five years ago, on November 3, 2000, Swiss public television SRF announced news that would change Swiss brewing forever: Danish beer giant Carlsberg had taken over Feldschlösschen, then Switzerland’s largest brewer, for CHF870 million ($1.08 billion). The Swiss beer cartel Until the early 1990s, the Swiss beer market was highly regulated. By 1935, almost all breweries had agreed not to compete with one another, according to the Swiss National Museum. Prices, advertising and delivery areas were set jointly. Even in restaurants, beer prices were standardised. Rudolf Strahm, then a parliamentarian and later federal price supervisor, recalls: “Beer prices were agreed among suppliers for the whole of Switzerland. The same applied between breweries and restaurants. These agreements went so far that most restaurants were only allowed to purchase one type of ...
