French supermarket groups said an overnight cyberattack remotely disrupted refrigeration systems, sending some units into extended defrost cycles and forcing stores to discard fresh and frozen food. The incident turned a software compromise into a physical loss: equipment meant to protect the cold chain instead heated the stock it was supposed to preserve.
Refrigerators were pushed to 50°C
Reuters reported that Les Mousquetaires, owner of Intermarché, said refrigerators reached 50°C for about six hours. The company threw away the affected food rather than risk selling products that had been stored outside safe temperatures. Bloomberg likewise reported that meat, frozen goods and vegetables were discarded after attackers forced cooling equipment to defrost.
The scale was still being revised Monday. Reuters and Bloomberg cited an early count of about 150 Intermarché stores, while BFM Business later reported that 300 Intermarché and Netto locations and fewer than 100 Coopérative U stores were affected. BFM said two stores in Alsace alone estimated losses of €270,000.
Investigators are examining the control software
BFM linked the incident to older versions of refrigeration-control software from Danish manufacturer Danfoss. Politico reported that France's cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, found a flaw in software supplied by a Danish company, contacted the vendor and began coordinating with European counterparts. Danfoss had not responded to Politico's request for comment.
No attached report identifies the attackers or establishes their motive. Separate supermarket IT outages reported in the Netherlands and Belgium have not been publicly linked to the French refrigeration attack.
