Picnic and Flink are a supermarket, according to the court of appeal

On 24 June 2025, the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal ruled in a long-running dispute between Picnic and Flink, among others, on the one hand and the trade unions on the other. The outcome is that, contrary to Picnic and Flink's opinion, they are considered to be an online supermarket and not an e-commerce company.

What happened?

Picnic trolleys driving through the streets have gradually become a familiar sight, but what kind of company is it really? Picnic claims that its business activities are fundamentally different from those of physical supermarkets and that it is therefore not required to apply the collective labour agreement. The emphasis is said to be on logistics rather than on operating a supermarket. The trade unions argue the opposite, pointing out that food has always been delivered to homes and citing examples such as Coop, Spar and Plus.

What is the consequence?

In short, the court of appeal agreed with the reasoning of the trade unions and ruled that Picnic and Flink fall within the scope of the collective labour agreement for supermarkets (the “Food Industry” collective labour agreement). As a result, many current and former employees are now entitled to wage claims, which could represent a significant expense for Picnic.

The fact that they had concluded their own e-commerce collective agreement with a few trade unions does not alter this.

Incidentally, this case only concerns the period between 13 September 2022 and 1 July 2023. During that period, the supermarket collective agreement was declared generally binding, which means that all employers, including supermarkets that are not members of the employers' organisation involved in the supermarket collective agreement and that fall within its scope, must apply that collective agreement.

Picnic has submitted a request to the ministry to be exempted from the supermarket collective labour agreement. The trade unions hope that the court's ruling will prevent this request from being granted. The previous request for exemption was granted. Will the minister do so again?

What can entrepreneurs learn from this?

Any entrepreneur who has doubts about the applicability of a collective agreement would be wise to have a collective agreement scope investigation carried out. Unintentionally, business activities may still fall under a (different) generally binding collective agreement, with all the financial consequences that entails.

Do you have questions about the applicability of a collective labour agreement to your company? Please contact Dennis Oud, Tim van Riel, Tessa Sipkema or Elke Hofman-Bijvank.