The Bundeskartellamt has approved Kaufland's acquisition of four large food retail stores in Bedburg, Chemnitz, Essen, and Wesel from Globus, following extensive market investigations. Kaufland decided not to acquire the Neubrandenburg store due to competition concerns raised by the Bundeskartellamt.

Globus operates 65 large food retail stores in Germany and also has DIY stores in Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Luxembourg. The four stores acquired by Kaufland were former Real stores taken over by Globus as part of remedies imposed in the Real proceedings.

Kaufland, part of the Schwarz Group, operates around 770 large food retail stores in Germany and 1,500 stores across eight European countries. The Schwarz Group is the largest food retailer in Europe with a turnover of approximately 148 billion euros.

The Bundeskartellamt conducted detailed investigations in the affected food retail markets, defining relevant geographic markets based on customer residence areas and turnover. Online food retailing was considered but not a decisive factor in the assessment of the takeover.

The merger's impact on the procurement side, affecting the relationship between food retailers and suppliers, was also assessed. Despite expanding procurement positions, the incremental effect did not raise concerns under merger control rules, considering the nationwide assessment and the geographic spread of the store locations.