Tens of Millions of Euros: How Much Europe Lost Due to Refrigerator Hack

As a result of large-scale cyberattacks on refrigeration systems in European supermarkets, which occurred in October and early November, Europe's total financial losses due to spoiled food are estimated at tens of millions of euros. The exact consolidated damage amount is still being calculated, as the attack affected hundreds of retail outlets in different countries.

In the first wave (mid-October 2026), the attack was concentrated in France and disabled refrigerators in approximately 700 supermarkets of major chains (Carrefour, Intermarché, Netto, Monoprix, Coopérative U). Due to hackers forcibly raising the temperature inside the chambers to +50 °C for several hours, food was massively spoiled. The damage in France alone is estimated at several million euros (for example, just two stores in the Alsace region lost around 270,000 euros).

Second wave (the night of November 2, 2026): a similar breach through vulnerabilities in outdated Danfoss software affected between 7 and 10 European countries, including Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Estonia, and Portugal. Hundreds of stores were impacted (chains Spar, Carrefour, Coop, Delhaize, ICA, SuperValu). Losses for each individual large retail outlet amount to tens of thousands of euros (for instance, the Belgian retailer Delhaize reported food losses of 100,000 euros, while one small store in Belgium discarded food worth 60,000 euros). The total damage from this wave also reached tens of millions of euros.

European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen called the incident a deliberate attempt to disrupt food supply chains, emphasizing that while there is no food shortage in the EU, the financial damage to businesses has been extremely painful.