Aldi and Lidl could be brought under the same land agreement rules as the UK’s largest supermarket chains after a provisional decision by the Competition and Markets Authority.
The watchdog said Aldi, Lidl GB and Lidl NI should be covered by the Groceries Market Investigation (Controlled Land) Order 2010, which is designed to stop large grocery retailers using land agreements to make it harder for rival supermarkets to open nearby.
The order already applies to Asda, Co-op, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. It restricts practices such as restrictive covenants and exclusivity arrangements where they could limit competition between supermarket sites.
The CMA said its provisional view followed a review using set criteria, including the scale and geographic coverage of stores, the range of groceries sold and the retailers’ procurement model. It said Aldi, Lidl GB and Lidl NI operate larger grocery stores across Great Britain or Northern Ireland, carry a full range of groceries and buy directly from suppliers through integrated wholesaling functions.
When the order was introduced in 2010, Aldi and Lidl’s UK activities were excluded as limited assortment discounters. The CMA said it had provisionally found that their current operations no longer met that description.
The authority said the UK food and grocery market is worth an estimated £215 billion, and that various sources place Aldi and Lidl among the top five retailers by market share. It is seeking further views before making a final decision on whether the three businesses should be designated as large grocery retailers.