Auchan is accused of illegally land seize in Russia

Auchan's oldest location in Russia — a 50 hectare cluster of stores — is standing on a plot of government land reserved for the Russian Institute of Agricultural Sciences.

 The stores in question — Auchan's
hardware megastore Leroy Merlin and its sporting goods outlet
Decathlon, as well as an Auchan food retail outlet — are on a
320-hectare plot in the suburb of Mytishchy just north of Moscow.

Before 2000
the land belonged to a branch of the Russian Agricultural Academy,
but in accordance with a Moscow region programme to develop, the area
was then leased to the private sector, in part to Auchan and
London-listed real estate developer PIK Group.

The
statement from the Natural Resources Ministry, which houses the
environmental agency, said „the illegally seized land will be
returned to the government, and the people responsible for the
illegal use of the space will be punished.