July 11, 2025, 9:32 am | Read time: 4 minutes
Discount grocery chain Lidl is currently facing backlash due to changes in its Lidl Plus rewards program. Customers are complaining about the removal of free items, reduced discounts, and a limited selection of coupons.
In June, Lidl updated the Plus app five times. And the updates continue this month. The latest update has been available for download for several days. However, the discount retailer remains silent about what exactly is new in the App Store and Google Play Store. Each new update simply states: “Lidl Plus has been further improved for you. Enjoy using it!” Customers, however, are not impressed with the latest update of the Lidl Plus app and are complaining in forums about a significantly reduced bonus program.
Overview
Significant Restrictions in Lidl Plus Bonus Program
Many users are particularly upset about the reduction of attractive offers and the elimination of free items. Previously, customers could reach tiers through purchases that could be exchanged for free products or high-value discounts. Now, the program mostly offers only small discounts–almost exclusively on Lidl’s own brands. Free items have also been removed. Instead, there are only 50 percent discounts on certain products. Many users find the new tier structure significantly less appealing.
It is also particularly criticized that the remaining discounts are often not on staple foods but rather on unhealthy or alcoholic products. This does not quite fit with Lidl’s mission statement. The discount retailer promotes a healthier lifestyle, starting with food, with the slogan “On the way to tomorrow–for more health!” However, it remains to be seen how the discounts will develop in the coming weeks.
Wave of Customer Dissatisfaction
The frustration is clearly reflected in app reviews and forum posts. Numerous users rate the Lidl Plus app with only one star. For example, a review in the Play Store from July 9 states:
“It used to be much better. Coupons for alcohol (via the discount collector) are a no-go for me. It’s also a shame that there’s not at least more choice. Often, no product appeals to us, and if it does, it’s often out of stock.”
Another user writes: “Extremely few coupons, very few percentages, and the quality of Lidl’s own brands has drastically declined.”
The July update is also critically reviewed on myDealz. Customers exchange views on the deteriorated Lidl Plus bonus program, now calling it merely “bait offers until the masses get used to it.”
In addition to the removal of many coupons and the devaluation of the program, technical issues such as long loading times or disruptive animations at the checkout are also leading to growing frustration.
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Consumer Advocates Step In
The Lidl Plus app’s bonus program has been under criticism from consumer advocates for some time. The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) filed an injunction against Lidl in April. The reason: Lidl does not sufficiently inform users that discounts are only granted in exchange for personal data. The legal dispute is a pilot case–it is not yet legally clear how comprehensively digital bonus programs must inform about data usage.
Another point of criticism concerns the availability of discounts. Price reductions are now only available through apps at many retailers. Consumers are thus indirectly forced to disclose their data to access special offers. The lawsuits by consumer organizations against misleading advertising and non-transparent pricing show that this model is increasingly under scrutiny.
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Other Discounters and Supermarkets Criticized
Data protection concerns and deteriorating bonus programs are not just issues Lidl has to deal with. Rewe and Penny have also recently quietly raised the thresholds for discount tiers. At Rewe, customers now have to spend at least 100 euros monthly to receive a 3 percent coupon–twice as much as before. Discounts are also not granted immediately at the time of purchase but are collected and can only be used on a subsequent purchase. Similar adjustments have been made at Penny.
Consumer advocates accuse the chains of luring users with attractive introductory offers, only to worsen the conditions once they are accustomed. We confronted Lidl with the current customer opinions and wanted to know from the discount retailer why the bonus program was changed and whether Lidl might return to the old system. However, a response is still pending.