AMSTERDAM, 16/02/10 - People drinking a beer in Amsterdam have a big chance of it being an unbranded brew. Hospitality businesses are serving illegal beer en masse to get out of stranglehold contracts they complain they have to sign with the established brewers like Heineken.

In the Netherlands, hospitality licences are tied to breweries. Someone who wants to take over a Heineken cafe can seldom or never switch to another brand. In any case, a bulk contract must be made with a brewer. These contracts are however so unattractive that beer in the supermarket is often cheaper than beer from the trucks that the brewer sends.

Many cafe and restaurant-holders quietly put unbranded barrels under their taps, because they can save 25 to 50 euros on purchasing and the customers do not taste the difference, Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool reports. The unbranded beers come from brewers with overcapacity in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Insiders in the drinks trade believe that 60 percent of the established hospitality businesses take this route. Heineken brewery does not know the exact size of this "swindle," but is receiving more and more signals that it is an everyday practice. "But we take tough action against it; the consumer is being taken for a ride."