Bulgaria's competition watchdog has fined Kaufland a total of €75,653,706 for unfair trading practices towards Bulgarian food producers. The Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) announced the decision on 9 November. The chain rejects the charges and threatens to review its investment in Bulgaria.

The CPC found three violations by Kaufland Bulgaria EOOD & Co. They concern the chain's dealings with specific suppliers in 2026. The biggest fine, €31.85m, is for unfairly deducting fees from supply prices for services that Kaufland itself provides to suppliers. The supply price is what the store pays the producer for the goods. The fine equals 2.2% of the chain's total turnover for 2025.

The other two fines are €21.9m each. One is for pressing suppliers to cut their prices, with the chain using its stronger position in the talks. The other is for putting unjustified obstacles in the way of producers who asked for higher prices. The CPC says Kaufland unfairly dragged out and delayed the talks with them.

The commission says the terms of price talks mostly favoured the chain and harmed producers. It asked Kaufland and its suppliers for information for more than five months. It set the fines according to how serious and how long the violations were, and their effect on the suppliers involved.

Later monitoring found the practices had not changed. The CPC noted "attempts to get around the bans and to apply new forms of unfair trading practices" and ordered the violations to stop immediately.

Minutes after the decision, Kaufland Bulgaria sent a statement to the BTA news agency. The company says the fine has no objective basis and is out of proportion with European practice. It says a penalty of this size ignores European standards of proportionality, meaning a fit between the violation and the punishment.

The chain cites European Commission data, which shows that total fines for unfair trading practices across the EU in 2022–2024 came to €41.9m for 754 cases.

Kaufland said it strictly follows national and European rules and values the principles of the rule of law. It will challenge the decision before Bulgarian and European bodies by all legal means. It also describes itself as a long-standing partner.

"In these circumstances we will be forced to fully review our future investment in the country, including the planned €200 million in the next three years alone," the statement says. Kaufland will also advise its parent company, the Schwarz Group, to do the same with its plans in Bulgaria.

Since it entered Bulgaria, the chain says, it has created nearly €14bn in added value, and it has more than 8,500 employees. The company says it will keep offering affordable quality to customers and working with local producers.

The case against Kaufland is part of a probe that began in the food market. In June 2025, the CPC started a sector analysis of the whole path of food, from producer to retailer. In December 2025, the commission reported serious structural problems: a strong position for the big chains and growing dependence of producers on them when they sell their output. A closer check of prices, discounts, mark-ups and contracts between the chains and suppliers followed.

In May 2026, the CPC opened separate cases on its own initiative against Kaufland Bulgaria and against Maxima Bulgaria, which runs the T Market stores.