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.
Provisional findings
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:
- Store footprint and geographic coverage: each operates larger grocery stores – those with a shopfloor area of more than 1,000 square metres – throughout either Great Britain or Northern Ireland
- Product range: each carries a full range of groceries, even though they may offer less choice within some categories than some existing LGRs
- Procurement model: each purchases groceries directly from suppliers through an integrated grocery wholesaling function
Before reaching a final decision, the CMA is seeking further views on whether Aldi, Lidl GB and Lidl NI should be designated as LGRs under the Order and therefore be subject to the land agreement rules.
Juliette Enser, executive director of Competition Enforcement and Markets at the CMA, said: “We want everyone to have the best choice of supermarket and range of prices when buying their groceries. To ensure this happens, we put rules in place to prevent big supermarket chains blocking rival stores from opening nearby – and now we propose applying those rules to Aldi and Lidl too.
“This is about allowing shoppers to choose where they spend their money and levelling the playing field for all major supermarkets. Today’s proposals are provisional and we welcome views before deciding the best way forward.”
What happens next
No final decision has been made. The CMA is inviting stakeholders to submit views on the provisional findings by 5pm on Monday 7 September 2026. It will consider those responses before final decisions are reached in the autumn.
