Online food retail sector: Knuspr can take over Bringmeister

The Bundeskartellamt has cleared the takeover of the Bringmeister group by Knuspr (Rohlik group) in the first phase of merger control.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “Online food retail has developed very dynamically over the last few years. Initially we observed strong growth and numerous market entries in this sector. What we are seeing now is a certain consolidation with an increasing number of mergers. Specifically in this phase, merger control is an important tool for preventing the creation of market power.”

The Czech Rohlik group has been operating in the German online food retail sector through Großer Kern GmbH under the Knuspr brand since 2021. The group’s supply area currently covers the greater Munich/Augsburg area and the Rhine-Main region. The Bringmeister group operates its online food retail business in the Berlin/Potsdam and Munich/Augsburg regions.

The merger does not raise any competition concerns. When placing a narrow focus on online food retail only, the merger parties’ highest market shares, more than 20 percent, are achieved within the city of Munich. In this area, there is also competition from REWE Lieferservice, Flaschenpost, Amazon Fresh, Getir (including Gorillas) and Flink, among other companies. The question as to whether online food retail constitutes a separate market or is to be included in an overall food retail market could be left open in this case. In any case the merger was not expected to significantly impede effective competition.