Auchan, the French retailer, has said that it is fully cooperating with a probe from the French authorities into its Russian business.

The company in March made the controversial move to launch a private label store in Russia under the banner of ‘My Auchan’. The store offers around 900 items with approximately 90 per cent being own-brand food items. The company denied that this was a new store, and instead argued that it was a re-branding of an existing Auchan retailer.

Weeks before that launch however, French newspaper Le Monde and investigative websites Bellingcat and The Insider alleged that Auchan was supplying Russian soldiers in Ukraine with goods such as clothes and cigarettes for free. Auchan denied the allegations, saying that it “does not conduct, support or fund any charity collections for the armed forces.”

In the weeks since, French magazine Challenges and the Financial Times reported that the French financial prosecutor's department had opened a probe into Auchan’s Russian business.

For its part, Auchan has denied any wrongdoing, with a spokesperson saying: “Auchan is a victim in the case and reserves the right to join the case as a civil party. The inquiry aims to clarify certain facts within the Russian subsidiary of Auchan but is not directed against Auchan itself.

"Auchan has been fully co-operating for three years with the demands of the French justice department in this affair which, it must be recalled, revolves around an allegation of fraud and over-invoicing of products which Auchan Russia buys in Russia, and is therefore an exclusively a Russian matter.”

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