BRUSSELS — The European Commission has opened an antitrust probe into Red Bull as it suspects the energy drink manufacturer of abusing its dominant position by restricting competition for rival products.

“Red Bull’s strategy allegedly targeted in particular the energy drinks sold by its closest competitor,” the Commission said in a press release. It added that Red Bull’s strategy had targeted sale points where drinks are bought for consumption elsewhere, such as supermarkets and petrol station shops.

The Commission suspects that Red Bull implemented the strategy at least in the Netherlands. This consisted of granting incentives to retailers to stop selling rival energy drinks and of misusing “its position as category manager at off-trade customers so that competing energy drinks sold in sizes exceeding 250ml are delisted or disadvantaged,” the Commission said.

“We want to see if these practices may be keeping prices high and limiting choice of energy drinks for consumers,” competition chief Teresa Ribera said in a statement. “This investigation is part of the Commission’s continued efforts to enforce competition rules in the food supply chain to the benefit of European consumers.”

Red Bull’s legal challenge of the Commission’s dawn raids carried out in 2023 was dismissed in October by the General Court, which ruled that the inspection was neither arbitrary nor disproportionate.

The case is AT.40819