Australians are "rightly outraged" at the nation's two major supermarkets and it's up to Coles and Woolworths to win back their trust, the federal government says. or signup to continue reading The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is taking the grocery behemoths to the Federal Court, after accusing them of breaking consumer law by duping customers with misleading discount pricing claims on hundreds of products. Both retailers routinely bumped up the prices of products by 15 per cent for brief periods, the commission alleges.
Woolworths' Prices Dropped and Coles' Down Down deals then listed the goods at prices that were below the peak but higher than the initial price. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lashed the supermarkets, saying it should never have happened. "That's not the Australian way, it's not honest, it's not fair dinkum," he said in Perth on Tuesday.
"Australians are rightly outraged at this abuse of power, which has had an impact on the amount of money they put across the checkout for their weekly grocery bills. "It's not good enough - get your act together and behave as you would expect anyone to behave in this country." Some have questioned whether the grocery giants were in cahoots on these allegedly fake markdown schemes.
Former chair of the consumer watchdog Allan Fels said there would be political and public policy repercussions if the allegations were proven. "Their claims that cost inflation justifies the behaviour will not stand up in court,".