By Vipal Durge
The agriculture and food supply chain has emerged as a growing enforcement priority for national competition authorities (NCAs) across Europe, with regulators simultaneously targeting buyer power in food retail, restrictive vertical practices and suspected cartel conduct in upstream agricultural input markets.
There are 14 ongoing inquiries — spanning sector studies, merger follow-up reviews and formal investigations which are examining competitive dynamics across multiple levels of the agri-food value chain.
Authorities in Denmark, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, Estonia, Belgium, France and Italy have intensified scrutiny not only of large retailers’ purchasing practices and their impact on suppliers and food prices, but also of alleged price-fixing, resale price maintenance and market-sharing arrangements involving seed producers, pesticide suppliers and agricultural equipment providers.
Together, the cases point to a broader enforcement shift toward structural and conduct-based risks affecting agriculture from farm inputs to retail distribution.
Major jurisdictions step up scrutiny
The recent inquiries launched in major economies have brought the issue into sharper focus, signalling a broader policy shift. In early January, the French authority initiated, for the first time, a formal competitive assessment of major food retail buying alliances, targeting AURA and CONCORDIS to evaluate their effects on suppliers, retailers and end consumers.
The review places the AURA alliance, formed in September 2024 by Intermarché, Auchan and Casino, and the CONCORDIS alliance, established in mid-2025 by Carrefour, Cooperative U and Germany’s RTG, firmly on the authority’s radar.
The French authority will assess risks including supply restrictions, quality degradation and reduced incentives for suppliers to innovate or invest. On the downstream side, the review will examine whether buying alliances facilitate coordination among retailers or lead to excessive standardisation of purchasing conditions.
Italy has meanwhile launched a market inquiry into the role of large-scale retail chains in the agri-food supply chain, citing a growing divergence between headline inflation and food price inflation in recent years. The authority will analyse the exercise of buyer power by supermarket groups, including through non-corporate forms of aggregation such as purchasing cooperatives, buying groups and so-called “super-centrals”.
The Belgian authority has also issued a statement of objections to Tiense Suikerraffinaderij NV and its parent company Südzucker AG, alleging a potential abuse of economic dependence affecting sugar beet growers. The case concerns a suspected infringement of Article IV.2/1 of the Belgian Code of Economic Law, which prohibits companies from exploiting a position of economic strength to impose unfair conditions on trading partners that lack reasonable alternatives.
Germany and Denmark flag structural risks
Similar concerns have also been raised in Germany. In a report delivered in November last year, the Monopolies Commission warned that market concentration across both food retail and manufacturing sectors has increased sharply. Commission chair Tomaso Duso said the supply chain has become increasingly imbalanced, with retailers and some manufacturers holding “significantly more power, while agriculture is exposed to global market risks”.
The advisory body recommended halting further concentration in the already highly consolidated retail sector and subjecting new transactions to closer scrutiny. Four groups — Edeka, Rewe, Schwarz (Lidl and Kaufland) and Aldi — now control around 85% of Germany’s grocery retail market.
Denmark’s authority, which launched a review of the country’s food value chain late last year, has also announced that monitoring the grocery sector will be an enforcement priority in 2026, against the backdrop of sharply rising food prices since 2021.
Ongoing inquiries across Europe
| Jurisdiction | Type of inquiry | Launch date | Status |
| Italy | Sector study | January 15, 2026 | Public consultation phase |
| Greece | Sector study | December 10, 2025 | Final report due Q3 2026 |
| Denmark | Sector study | December 3, 2025 | Public consultation phase |
| Bulgaria | Sector study | December 2, 2025 | Interim report published |
| France | Investigation | January 9, 2026 | Report expected end-2026 to 2027 |
| Romania | Investigation | October 27, 2025 | Six retailers under investigation |
| Estonia | Investigation | November 4, 2025 | Six retail chains under investigation |
| Bulgaria | Merger remedies review | January 23, 2026 | Ongoing |
| Turkey | Investigation | January 29, 2026 | May-Agro Tohumculuk faces third probe |
| Turkey | Investigation | December 11, 2025 | 11 firms under investigation |
| Turkey | Investigation | July 3, 2025 | Seed and agro-chemical suppliers under investigation |
| Romania | Investigation | August 13, 2025 | Nine firms under investigation |
| Poland | Investigation | June 23, 2025 | 10 dealers and AGCO investigation |
| Belgium | Investigation | February 6, 2026 | SO issued to Tiense Suikerraffinaderij NV |
Upstream markets under scrutiny
Enforcement activity is also expanding upstream into agricultural input markets. Turkey, one of the most active enforcers in Europe last year, has three ongoing investigations linked to the agriculture sector.
On January 29, the Turkish authority launched a formal investigation into May-Agro Tohumculuk following allegations of resale price fixing and territorial or customer restrictions imposed on dealers. May-Agro is already under investigation in two separate cases targeting the field crops seeds sector and the agricultural chemicals and seed sector.
In France, a sector inquiry into agricultural equipment identified concerns about pricing pressure and limited competition in the tractor market, prompting the authority to urge manufacturers to revise certain contractual practices to give farmers greater choice and transparency.
Poland’s UOKiK has likewise sustained enforcement in the agricultural machinery sector. In December, the authority imposed fines totalling approximately $46.8 million and $95 million on several agricultural machinery dealers and continues to pursue proceedings related to the distribution of Valtra, Fendt and Massey Ferguson equipment.
Romania, meanwhile, raided nine crop seed and crop protection product suppliers in August last year as part of an expanded investigation into suspected price-fixing and market-sharing practices in the agricultural sector.
From sector studies to enforcement pipelines
Sector studies are increasingly serving as precursors to enforcement action, though not invariably. Romania’s sector study into the milk and dairy products market, for example, led to a formal investigation into six large retail chains — Metro Cash & Carry România, Selgros Cash & Carry, Auchan România, Carrefour România, Kaufland România and Mega Image.
Estonia has similarly opened an investigation into six leading retail chains — Coop Eesti Keskühistu, Selver, Prisma Peremarket, Rimi Eesti Food, Maxima Eesti and OG Elektra — following a sector-wide review of contractual terms between retailers and agricultural or food producers.
In Bulgaria, the authority has initiated a review to assess whether Tirbul EAD (now renamed United Milk Company EAD) has complied with the investment and farmer-support commitments attached to its 2023 dairy merger clearance. The authority said the review draws on findings in the interim report of its sector study into the milk and dairy products market.
In Slovenia, a sector inquiry concluded in September found that contracts between agricultural cooperatives and suppliers contained anticompetitive clauses, including exclusivity obligations and tying arrangements.
An evolving enforcement landscape
The recent surge in national-level interventions coincides with the European Commission’s ongoing review of the Unfair Trading Practices framework. In December, the Commission concluded that the framework could be strengthened, particularly through more effective enforcement and enhanced support for small suppliers operating across borders.
More broadly, the retail sector accounted for the second-highest number of infringement decisions globally last year, with 26 fining decisions, as reported. Against that backdrop, NCAs appear increasingly willing to deploy market studies and follow-on investigations to address perceived enforcement gaps.
As the Commission moves toward a potential upgrade of the UTP regime, national authorities are pressing ahead with their own agendas, signalling that agriculture and food supply chains are likely to remain a central enforcement focus in the near future.
