Vucic’s Self-Will Has Undermined Foreign Retailers in Serbia, German Daily Claims

Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/Predsednistvo Srbije/Dimitrije Goll)

Foreign retail chains are having an increasingly hard time enduring Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s self-will and may even be pushed to leave Serbia, the German daily Handelsblatt wrote on Nov. 11, adding that it is questionable how long the European Union will tolerate such market interference in a candidate country.

Citing sources within Delhaize Group, the Handelsblatt article claimed the Belgian multinational retailer plans to close 25 Maxi stores by the end of the year since the group’s Serbian branch has been reporting losses in the millions to the company headquarters on a weekly basis.

“These losses are not a matter of managerial error or harsh competition but of the political self-will of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. In late August, he issued a decree which indiscriminately limits retail mark-ups. This has also impacted German retail chain Lidl,” the daily wrote.

The central measures of the decree capped mark-ups on about 3,000 products from 23 categories to 20 percent. Since said margin must cover all operating costs, it is difficult to do business profitably, Handelsblatt explained.

According to the paper, the medium-term repercussions of Vucic’s measures may well be the complete withdrawal of foreign retailers from Serbia.

The article went on to claim that such behavior by a candidate country is barely tolerable to the EU, with the European Commission’s latest annual report on Serbia stating the retail margin caps “warp the market, affect investments and are not in keeping with the EU’s market principles” and calling on Serbia to “refrain from such interventions.”

The daily also mentioned the ongoing, year-long anti-regime protests in the country, where demonstrators have, among other issues, complained of high living costs. “With the help of pro-government media, populist leader Vucic quickly found the culprit: foreign retail groups such as Delhaize and Lidl, that are robbing the people with too high prices,” the article stated.

Handelsblatt maintains said companies are particularly vexed that Vucic’s decree only applies to retailers with an annual turnover of about EUR38 million, thereby targeting mostly large foreign chains while exempting small Serbian retailers. Now, foreign retail chains are slashing operating costs in hopes they will survive until February 2026, when the decree expires.

The German daily concluded by citing EP Daniel Freund of the Austrian Greens party, who opined that such “interventions by illiberal politicians in the market result in poorer offerings to shoppers” while also “not bringing Serbia closer to the single European market.”