your last sentence suggests that you don't believe that anyone can just undercut the big supermarket chains in austria. which is what i also don't believe.
but your first sentence is saying something different, so that has me confused.
It's bs that anyone not in the supposed cartel can suddenly make huge profits on food by undercutting. Gross margins on food are almost certainly very low. THERE IS NO CARTEL. There is no room to undercut. There is no evidence of illegal price fixing other than price go up. The only cartel is the Austrian government which is the cause of the price increases--not via lack of enforcement of laws but from carrying out their policies as written. This is inconvenient to the socialist talking point about corporations fixing the price of bread with impunity.
but i also do not agree with you that it would be trivial to sell food anywhere.
brand protection laws here (i found a source for germany, but i believe that this should be EU wide, otherwise it would be in violation of EU laws) do not allow you to sell a branded product without the permission of the brand owner.
so in order to sell something you have to negotiate with the brand. if you are a small shop you will not get the same volume prices as the big chains because you have no bargaining power. and if you already sell something else you will have to convince them that doing that combining that is a good idea. (i also think that you may need a license to sell food alongside other products, which may be denied. you can't just sell everything anywhere). the brands may also not be happy that you undercut the large chains they sell to as it may push them to demand lower prices from the brand in order to compete.
i also found one article that claims that "Territorial Supply Constraints" would allow brands to segment the EU along the internal borders and demand different prices per region.
it looks like that may be the real problem.
and while it may be possible to buy the products from a third party within the EU, doing so may may be difficult at scale and make it more difficult to undercut prices. and also the complicated legal landscape risks costly lawsuits, even if you would win.
why aren't the existing german chains in austria undercutting others? probably because they buy directly from the brand and so the brand can dictate where they sell.
Your bargaining power is that there are a dozen other food suppliers and tens of thousands of other common food items you could sell instead. No store is going to cry and go bankrupt because they can't sell Ding Dongs. Also, there are chains of hardware stores, chains of coffee shops, chains of everything which have additional bargaining power. And if the selling price is so high then everyone is going to be eager to push as much through the pipe as possible while the getting is good.
>the brands may also not be happy
Too bad. There is no shortage of food brands. This is not North Korea we're talking about.
>why aren't the existing german chains in austria undercutting others?
Probably because to do so would mean giving up all profit. That may in fact be illegal predatory pricing--using their position in the market to squeeze out less solvent competitors.
