De Vrienden van Amstel LIVE (Heineken) data breach

De Vrienden van Amstel LIVE (Heineken) announced a data breach on Nov 12, 2026 affecting about 128,000 email addresses, exposing names, email addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth. It happened through a vendor (Cloudbear (hosting provider of research agency Abbi Insights)). No settlement or compensation has been announced.

What happened

Heineken, owner of the Dutch concert series De Vrienden van Amstel LIVE, said 128,000 email addresses were taken in a data breach at Cloudbear, a hosting provider used by research agency Abbi Insights, which ran visitor surveys for the concerts and for Amstel LIVE in de Kroeg. For concert visitors the data includes name, email address, phone number, gender, date of birth and postcode; for Amstel LIVE in de Kroeg it is first name and email address only. No bank, payment or card details or passwords were involved. Affected people were emailed on November 11, 2026 and the breach was reported to the Dutch Data Protection Authority; it is still unclear whether the data was viewed, copied or misused.

What should I do?

1. Be alert to phishing emails, texts and WhatsApp messages that mention Amstel LIVE, concert tickets or a survey prize.
2. Never share passwords, verification codes or other sensitive information in reply to an unexpected message, as Heineken advises.
3. Be wary of calls from people who already know your name and date of birth; hang up and call the organization back on an official number.
4. Don't click payment links for tickets or prizes in unexpected messages; buy only through the official ticket seller.

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