ACCC warns supermarkets, airlines, on enforcement hit list

ACCC boss Gina Cass-Gottlieb has laid out a laundry list of enforcement priorities, warning the regulator would catch and punish companies that break the law.

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb provides a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Supermarkets and essential service providers are on the competition regulator’s hit list, as the agency laid out its compliance and enforcement priorities for the year ahead.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it would target cost of living issues and online platforms in 2024, warning the regulator was aimed at catching and punishing companies breaking the law.

Unveiling its enforcement priorities, the ACCC said it would prioritise a number of new areas of concern, as well as pushing forward with actions on enduring issues for the regulator.

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the regulator knew the impact of its enforcement actions, warning manipulative and misleading pricing claims and poor products and services would see a response.

Environmental claims and sustainability will be a key feature of the ACCC’s enforcement actions in 2024 and 2025, with the regulator noting it was focused on consumer and product safety, fair trading and competition.

The ACCC will also conduct a number of reviews into the supermarket sector around pricing and product supplies, as well as continued surveillance of airline pricing and services after slapping Qantas with court action last year. This comes as the Senate inquiry into supermarkets is set to kick off on Thursday with its first meeting in Hobart.

The ACCC was directed to conduct an inquiry into the supermarkets sector in January, with the regulator set to report no later than August.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb said the ACCC would examine the prices of products as they leave the farm gate before landing on supermarket shelves.

She said the regulator was also running a separate investigation into discount pricing and rewards schemes.

“This priority reflects the concerns of many Australian consumers and farmers about supermarket pricing that have been expressed to the ACCC and publicly,” Ms Cass-Gottlieb said.

“We also have a role to ensure that consumers are not misled and that claims about specials, discounts and advertised prices are truthful and accurate.”

Ms Cass-Gottlieb said the ACCC was also concerned some airlines were banking profits from flight routes rather than investing in staff and resources to ensure they had reliable services.

“So we’re most focused on where is the money going and how does that lead into the consumer proposition,” she said.

The ACCC is also working on a number of mandatory codes of conduct for tech platforms, banks, and telcos, around scams and frauds.

Ms Cass Gottlieb said the penalties around breaches of the codes need not to be “too low” as this would “not provide the right incentives”, noting the ACCC wanted to see fines in the “millions of dollars” per breach.

The ACCC has also warned it would crack down on in-app purchases with inadequate safeguards, with Ms Cass-Gottlieb noting it was particularly concerned about platforms and video games targeting young people.

“We are going to focus in terms of where there are manipulative, misleading pricing claims and product and service claims in the digital economy,” she said.

“Far too often we hear concerns about consumers incurring huge purchases because of in-app offerings that have inadequate safeguards, or in some cases, deliberately target and nudge or confuse consumers.”

The laundry list of priory areas also notes the ACCC’s concerns around compliance by NDIS providers, as well as warnings of enforcement activity around unfair contract terms in consumer and small business deals, as well as ensuring compliance with consumer guarantees on electronics and targeting misconduct by retailers around delivery timelines.

It comes as Ms Cass-Gottlieb is set to speak at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Sydney on Thursday.

The ACCC chair will tell CEDA the regulator will pursue a number of key priorities, as well as several key projects including supervising compliance with gas pricing caps and ensuring proper disclosure of sponsorships by social media influencers.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb will tell CEDA the regulator found concerns with over 80 per cent of influencer posts reviewed and one in three businesses “engaging in concerning conduct in relation to their online product reviews“.