Woolworths and Coles respond to Federal Court proceedings after allegedly misleading customers with marketing campaigns
Woolworths and Coles are being taken to Federal Court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
On Monday, the regulator announced that it has commenced separate proceedings against the major supermarket chains “for allegedly breaching the Australian Consumer Law by misleading consumers through discount pricing claims on hundreds of common supermarket products”.
“The ACCC’s allegations relate to products sold by each of Woolworths and Coles at regular long-term prices which remained the same, excluding short-term specials, for at least six months and in many cases for at least a year,” the ACCC said in a statement.
“The products were then subject to price rises of at least 15 per cent for brief periods, before being placed in Woolworths’ ‘Prices Dropped’ promotion and Coles’ ‘Down Down’ promotion, at prices lower than during the price spike but higher than, or the same as, the regular price that applied before the price spike.”
If people can make an automatic extension that collates and spits out the next specials, kinda hard for the supermarkets to argue that it’s not built that way by formula.
We all know the suppliers are being held ransom behind the scenes as well, it’s not just the consumers getting straddled in an unfriendly way. Just need more noise around the racket.
They know exactly what they are doing, to the point consumers can even tell when it will be on the “next promo”. It is clearly being gamed