Overview
- An EHI study published Tuesday found retailers lost €4.33 billion to theft in 2025, a 3.1% rise from 2024 with about €3.05 billion attributed to customer theft.
- EHI estimates more than 98% of incidents go undetected or unreported, equal to roughly 24.8 million thefts annually, while police recorded about 383,000 shoplifting cases in 2025.
- About one third of customer theft is linked to organised groups that target items such as alcohol, cosmetics and razors, and internal theft by staff cost retailers about €910 million in 2025.
- Retailers spent roughly €3.3 billion on prevention last year, split between €1.7 billion on external measures like cameras and guards and €1.6 billion on internal controls and loss analysis.
- The Handelsverband Deutschland is pressing for tougher penalties, more police and court resources and broader permission for effective surveillance including AI-assisted video while retailers warn rising aggressiveness of thieves endangers staff and public revenues lose about €590 million in VAT each year.