On March 21, 2025, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) conditionally cleared the acquisition of 98 former Casino food retail stores by Auchan.[1]  The FCA decision is conditional on (i) the divestment of one supermarket, and (ii) sharing the sales area of one hypermarket with two competitors.

Background

On February 27, 2024, Auchan notified the FCA of its intention to acquire 98 former Casino food retail stores.  The acquisition takes place in the context of the divestment of Casino’s supermarkets and hypermarkets to Intermarché,[2] Carrefour,[3] and Auchan.  Due to important financial difficulties of the Casino group, the FCA granted Intermarché, Carrefour, and Auchan a derogation from the suspensive effect of merger control, enabling them to complete the transaction without having to wait for clearance.[4]

The FCA Decision

The FCA considered that the transaction is unlikely to raise competition concerns except for local areas around two target stores.  The FCA considered that in these areas “there was serious concern about Auchan strengthening its market power, without there being any credible or sufficient alternatives to regulate is competitive behaviour”.[5]  To remedy the identified risks, Auchan committed to (i) divest either the target store or another store within its group located in Aubagne, and (ii) share the sales area (c. 14.000m²) of the target hypermarket in Marseille with two competitors through sublease agreements, allowing one of them to create a new hypermarket of at least 2.500 m², and the other one to propose a specialized food retail offer.

While the sale of a store is a standard measure to wave the FCA’s competition concerns in markets involving retail stores, the sharing of sales area is an unprecedented remedy.  However, the FCA considered that such a commitment was sufficient to rule out any risk of harm to competition in this case.

[1] FCA press release, acquisition of 98 stores formerly operated under Casino banner by Auchan, March 21, 2025, available here.  The FCA decision has not yet been published.

[2] FCA Decision No. 24-DCC-02 of January 11, 2024, on the acquisition of sole control of 61 stores formerly operated under the Casino banner by ITM Enterprises, available here, and FCA Decision No. 24-DCC-255 of November 28, 2024, on the acquisition of sole control of 200 stores formerly operated under the Casino banner by ITM Enterprises, available here.  See Cleary Antitrust Watch, “The FCA Conditionally Clears Intermarché’s Acquisition of 200 Casino Stores After Having Granted a Derogation From The Suspensive Effect of Merger Control”, November 28, 2024, available here.

[3] FCA Decision No. 24-DCC-288 of December 13, 2024, on the acquisition of sole control of 25 stores formerly operated under the Casino banner by Carrefour, available here.

[4] FCA press release, “Takeover of Casino stores by Intermarché, Auchan and Carrefour: the FCA grants derogations from the suspensive effect of merger control, March 19, 2024”, available here.

[5] Op. cit. 1, “Risks to competition to the detriment of consumers identified in two local areas”.