Coles has lost a landmark Federal Court case brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), with the supermarket giant found to have misled customers through its “Down Down” discount promotions.
The ACCC alleged Coles and Woolworths falsely created the impression shoppers were receiving genuine discounts when, in some cases, products had only briefly been sold at inflated prices before being promoted as reduced.
Justice Michael O’Bryan ruled that 13 of the 14 sample products examined were advertised with misleading discounts because they had not been sold at the higher reference price for a reasonable period of time.
“I have concluded that 13 of the 14 Down Down tickets that were the subject of consideration in the joint liability trial were misleading because the relevant products were not sold at the price stated on the ticket for a reasonable period,” Justice O’Bryan said.
The court heard one example involved a 1.2kg bag of dog food which had been sold for $4 for almost 300 days before Coles increased the price to $6 for just one week, then promoted it as discounted at $4.50.
The case, brought by ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb, is considered one of the regulator’s most significant tests of its enforcement powers and could have major implications for pricing practices across the supermarket sector.
A separate case against Woolworths over its “Prices Dropped” campaign is still awaiting judgment.
Source: Australian Financial Review
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