ACCC to price check supermarket sector in ‘crackdown’ on gouging

Supermarket operators Coles and Woolworths are fighting an empowered ACCC on price gouging which they say there is no evidence of.

Woolworths chief executive Amanda Bardwell, ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb and Coles chief Leah Weckert.

The competition regulator has been handed a $30m boost to police Australia’s supermarket sector by the Albanese government which wants to penalise price gouging with hefty fines.

The supermarkets said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission won’t find anything.

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers, revealing his “cracking down on price gouging” on Sunday, said the ACCC will be able to fine supermarkets $10m or three times the benefit derived, or, if that value cannot be determined, 10 per cent of turnover over the preceding 12 months.

Coles turned over $39.9bn in revenue in its supermarkets division in the 2025 financial year leaving it open to a fine of almost $4bn under the most hawkish reading of the rules.

In addition, the government said it would implement the ACCC’s recommendations to improve price transparency in the supermarket sector.

Coles and Woolworths will need to notify the ACCC of acquisition plans under the changes, with the competition regulator empowered to scrutinise their property purchases.

The ACCC said it was developing guidance to “promote compliance”.

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb

The ACCC said it would publish its guidance by July 2026, when the changes come into effect.

Dr Chalmers said the government was making sure “families and pensioners get a fairer go at the checkout”. Supermarkets and service stations will also have to accept cash as a form of payment.

“This is about making it easier for people to use cash to buy essentials at the supermarket and the servo,” he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: John Gass

A Woolworths spokesman said the supermarket operator was “absolutely focused on delivering the best value for customers”.

“The law is unprecedented by targeting only two Australian-owned companies, creating an uneven playing field which will see much larger, foreign-owned retailers free to charge customers whatever they want, without any of the new proposed restrictions,” he said.

Both Coles and Woolworths argued in their submissions to a Treasury inquiry that introducing limits on prices risked worsening affordability. Coles told Treasury any ACCC investigation into potential price gouging risked “multimillion-dollar costs”.

The Australian Retailers Association also took aim at the proposal, with its boss Chris Rodwell warning the policy “seek to address a problem for which there is no evidence and risks having the opposite effect”.

“Regulating the profitability of individual items risks making staples more expensive, particularly for lower-income households and regional communities,” he said. “The best way to put downward pressure on prices is to provide regulatory and tax relief.”

The Business Council of Australia noted the ACCC’s previous surveys found no evidence of pricing gouging. BCA boss Bran Black said Australia had to focus on “reducing unnecessary regulation and addressing the underlying cost pressures across supply chains” to fight higher prices.

Originally published as ACCC to price check supermarket sector in ‘crackdown’ on gouging