• The President of UOKiK has approved the takeover of Tesco Polska by Salling Group – the owner of Netto stores.
• The concentration shall not result in a restriction of competition.

The application for takeover of Tesco Polska by Salling Group was initially submitted to the European Commission. However, the EC decided that, due to the scope of the transaction and experience with similar cases, UOKiK would be better suited for examining the case, which is why it referred the case to Poland.

There are approximately 1,100 discounts under the Netto brand in Denmark, Germany and Poland, 386 of which operate in our country. Tesco Polska owns a chain of hypermarkets and supermarkets. It currently has 320 stores, two distribution centres and 23 service stations. The concentration scheme covers 301 stores, 14 service stations, headquarters and distribution centres.  The transaction follows on from the Tesco Group’s decision to withdraw from the Polish market.

The proceedings included examination of the state of competition on several dozen local markets. Having analysed the concentration scheme and in line with the current case law, the President of UOKiK adopted the assumption that supermarkets, hypermarkets and discount stores directly compete with each other on local markets within a radius of 10-15 km from the store being taken over. This is the most frequent maximum distance that consumers are willing to travel to a larger store.

“The proceedings showed that in each of the cities surveyed Netto will have to compete with other discount stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets after the acquisition of Tesco facilities. This means that after the transaction the structure of these markets will not change to the detriment of consumers, suppliers or entrepreneurs operating smaller stores,” says President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny.

In addition to the decision concerning the takeover of Tesco Polska, the President of UOKiK issued a decision in February 2021 on the temporary takeover of eight Tesco stores by Salling Group. It concerns the facilities in Gliwice, Szczecin, Krakow, Gdynia, Kielce, Katowice, Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski and Warsaw. Salling Group is planning a permanent takeover only in the case of the store in the last location. The remaining ones will be taken over temporarily in connection with the process of terminating Tesco Group’s activity in Poland and will be sold to other entities in the future. The acquiring company undertook to operate these shops under the Tesco brand until 31 August 2021. 

Pursuant to the Act on Competition and Consumer Protection, a transaction is subject to notification to an antitrust authority if it involves entrepreneurs whose combined turnover in the preceding year exceeded EUR 1 billion worldwide or EUR 50 million in Poland. 

The UOKiK website  publishes information on all concentration-related anti-trust proceedings conducted by the Authority. For more information about the principles governing concentration of entrepreneurs please see the dedicated paper.

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
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Phone +48 695 902 088, +48 22 55 60 246
E-mail: biuroprasowe@uokik.gov.pl
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL