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Deposit tourism to Austria puts a strain on breweries

The increase in the deposit from nine to 20 cents in Austria corresponds roughly to the replacement value of a bottle. Previously, around six percent of beer bottles in circulation ended up in waste glass, residual waste or in the countryside every year. Empties and crates have long since cost much more to procure.

(Bild: APA/dpa/Robert Michael)

Fuel tourism on the German-Austrian border has got a brother: deposit tourism. The reason: since the beginning of February, a crate of beer with 20 empty returnable bottles has been selling for 3.90 euros more in Austria than in Germany. 

Entire trailers full of crates are said to have been driven across the border since then. What seems like a bargain to consumers is actually costing retailers and brewers money and is once again sparking the debate about a deposit increase in Germany.

• Specifically, the Austrian brewing industry has increased the bottle deposit from nine cents to 20 cents. In Germany it is eight cents. In addition, the deposit on crates of beer in Austria has been twice as high as in Germany at three euros for some time now.

• You can't tell from a conventional deposit bottle on which side of the border it was sold, nor which brewery it comes from. Where the empty bottles from the retail trade go is therefore usually determined by the beer crates, which are generally brewery-specific.

• The problem therefore affects those brewers and beverage producers who sell on both sides of the border. If one of their crates and bottles is bought in Germany and returned in Austria, their pockets are missing the 3.90 euros that the customer gains. 

• In Germany, too, a debate about a deposit increase has been simmering for years, which has been reignited by the neighbors' move. The background to this is that the deposit has not been increased for decades. However, a changeover entails several problems. On the one hand, brewers are worried that customers will perceive it as a price increase. 
  
  In addition, all bottles and possibly crates in circulation would suddenly become worth more. With around four billion bottles in circulation, cents can quickly turn into hundreds of millions of euros.

• Incidentally, the situation is completely different with the one-way deposit that has been in force in Austria since the beginning of the year. At 25 cents, this is at the same level as in Germany, and because the bottles are different on the two sides of the border, they can only be returned in the country of origin.

"People are trying to get rich"
The effect is still new, but the breweries are already alarmed. "In the first few days, the trend was catastrophic," says Christian Thiel from the Schönramer brewery in Petting. It's 13 kilometers from here to the border. "People are trying to get rich at the expense of the brewery and the trade. I know of one case where someone drove up to a small drinks market with a trailer full of 50 crates. But he didn't accept it."

Retailers would have the right to only take back normal household quantities of bottles and crates and to refuse to take back products that they do not offer themselves.