Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, UOKiK, has imposed fines exceeding 570 million PLN (approximately €131 million) on retail giant Jeronimo Martins Polska—the owner of the Biedronka supermarket chain—alongside 29 transport companies and eight individuals. The penalties stem from an unlawful anti-poaching conspiracy that restricted the movement of truck drivers and suppressed wage growth across the logistics sector for nearly seven years.
The illegal arrangement operated between June 2017 and February 2024, ending only after UOKiK officials conducted inspections. Under the scheme, transport companies operating out of Biedronka’s distribution centers agreed not to compete for each other’s drivers. A driver attempting to switch employers within the same distribution hub needed explicit permission from their current boss. If permission was denied, the driver faced a mandatory lockout period of several months, during which they were blocked from entering the distribution center to work for another contractor.
Jeronimo Martins Polska played a pivotal role in organizing and enforcing the anti-competitive network. The retail company monitored compliance, facilitated communications between carriers, and actively managed site access to bar non-compliant drivers. By curbing competition among carriers, Biedronka indirectly kept its own operational transport rates down, as carriers faced minimal upward pressure on driver salaries despite nationwide labor shortages. Internal documents reveal that Jeronimo Martins was aware the practice might violate antitrust laws, yet allowed it to continue.
UOKiK President Tomasz Chróstny emphasized that workers have a fundamental right to seek higher wages and better conditions elsewhere. By stripping thousands of drivers of this mobility, the cartel disrupted fair market dynamics and left workers to pay the economic price. The European Commission reviewed and concurred with UOKiK’s findings regarding the severity of the market violation.
The vast majority of the total penalty falls on Jeronimo Martins Polska, which was fined over 525 million PLN (€121 million). Individual transport providers received penalties scaled to their involvement, with one carrier receiving a 50 percent fine reduction through a leniency application after providing crucial evidence to investigators. Additionally, eight managers, business owners, and corporate officers were personally fined up to 390,000 PLN (€90,000) each for their direct roles in negotiating and maintaining the illicit non-compete scheme.
