Vienna, December 17
SPAR Österreichische Warenhandels-Aktiengesellschaft has formally notified Austria’s Federal Competition Authority (Bundeswettbewerbsbehörde, BWB) of its planned acquisition of 23 Unimarkt grocery stores, following extensive pre-notification discussions with the authority.
The transaction was officially filed on December 17, 2025, after earlier preparatory talks between Spar, Unimarkt and the BWB. These pre-notification contacts allowed the authority to begin assessing potential competition issues even before the formal notification was submitted, an approach the BWB said supports a more efficient and timely review.
Under Austrian merger control rules, the BWB now has four weeks—until January 14, 2026—to examine the proposed transaction. The review period may be extended by up to two additional weeks if Spar requests more time. The authority is expected to publish its initial decision on January 15, 2026.
The planned acquisition concerns 23 Unimarkt locations across several Austrian regions, including Styria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Lower Austria and Burgenland. The stores are located primarily in rural and semi-rural areas, such as Adnet, Altaussee, Feldbach, Gallneukirchen, Steyr, Schladming and Mürzzuschlag.
According to the BWB, both parties made use of pre-notification discussions before the formal filing. Unimarkt contacted the authority even before publicly announcing its market exit and provided detailed information on its intended approach for all affected locations. The companies also engaged in ongoing exchanges with the BWB regarding individual sites, potential buyers and other interested parties, enabling the authority to identify possible competition concerns at an early stage.
As part of this process, the BWB requested market data from Spar and other relevant grocery retailers. It also consulted smaller and regional market participants, reflecting the authority’s focus on the highly concentrated nature of the Austrian grocery retail sector. Particular attention was paid to the potential impact of the transaction on suppliers, especially regional producers.
For its competitive assessment, the BWB has identified the fully assortmented grocery retail sector as the relevant product market. This includes supermarkets, hypermarkets and discount stores selling a broad range of everyday consumer goods to private customers. Petrol station shops, kiosks and other small outlets were excluded from the market definition, as were non-core product categories such as tools or sporting goods.
Geographically, the authority applies a local market definition in grocery retail cases. While many retailers operate nationally, the BWB considers consumer choice to be limited by travel time. For the Unimarkt locations concerned, the authority assumes catchment areas of between 10 and 20 minutes by car, reflecting the predominantly rural character of the sites. Each location will be assessed individually, and in some cases the local market may be defined more narrowly.
The BWB also noted that Unimarkt’s withdrawal from the market could further increase concentration upstream in the supply chain. Previous sector inquiries have already found that Austria’s four largest grocery retailers hold significant bargaining power over suppliers, a factor that will be taken into account in the merger review.
If the authority finds no competition concerns for specific locations, the acquisition may be cleared in Phase I. Where issues are identified, the BWB may impose conditions, or, if serious concerns persist, refer the case to the Cartel Court for an in-depth Phase II investigation together with the Federal Cartel Prosecutor.
