Aldi and Lidl should be subject to the same rules as major supermarkets

CMA proposes to prevent Aldi and Lidl from blocking rival supermarkets opening close to their stores 

Provisional decisions find that Aldi, Lidl GB and Lidl NI are ‘Large Grocery Retailers’  

CMA is seeking views before making a final decision   

Following a review, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally decided that Aldi, Lidl GB and Lidl NI should be subject to rules set out in the Groceries Market Investigation (Controlled Land) Order 2010, which already apply to the UK’s biggest supermarket chains.  

The Order is designed to stop ‘Large Grocery Retailers’ (LGRs) from using land agreements to make it harder for rival supermarkets to open nearby – in particular through the use of restrictive covenants and exclusivity arrangements. The rules ensure supermarkets compete freely – and ultimately ensure shoppers have more choice about where to buy, and how much to pay for, their groceries. 

The Order currently applies to seven retailers – Asda, Co‑op, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.  

Using set criteria, the CMA reviews which retailers should be covered, and its provisional view is that Aldi, Lidl GB and Lidl NI should now be covered by the Order because of the scale and geographic coverage of their stores, their full range of groceries and their procurement model.  

The UK food and grocery market is worth an estimated £215 billion and, according to various sources, Aldi and Lidl’s market shares rank them amongst the top 5 retailers.   

When the Order was made in 2010, Aldi’s and Lidl’s UK activities were excluded from its scope as ‘limited assortment discounters’ (LADs), selling a significantly more limited range of groceries than the LGRs at a low price. Having reviewed the evidence on their current operations, the CMA has provisionally found that Aldi, Lidl GB and Lidl NI no longer qualify as LADs, and that they are LGRs on the basis of the following criteria: