Anthony Albanese announces $30m for ACCC fight against supermarket misconduct

Labor will pump an extra $30m of funding into the nation’s consumer watchdog to beef up the resources needed to continue its crackdown on alleged deceptive conduct by supermarkets.

Woolworths CEO Amanda Bardwell. left, ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb and Coles CEO Leah Weckert.

Labor will pump an extra $30m of funding into the nation’s consumer watchdog to beef up resources needed to continue its crackdown on deceptive conduct by supermarkets, as part of an ongoing campaign to force retailers to charge a fair price at the checkout.

In an effort to increase competition in the supermarket sector, Jim Chalmers will begin work with states and territories to reform planning and zoning regu­lations allowing companies outside of the Coles-Woolworths duopoly to more easily set up new stores.

The government will look at changing rules around land use restrictions and zoning laws, which it claimed were acting as barriers to competition by allowing the biggest retailers to bank land and prevent competitors opening stores nearby.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission announced earlier this month that it would take legal action against Coles and Woolworths for allegedly breaching consumer law; it accused both companies of misleading customers about so-called discounts.

The ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, recently said the supermarket giants had sporadically boosted the prices of hundreds of products in order to eventually drop them and claim they were heavily discounted.

The ACCC alleges the new ­prices were still above the long-term cost of products, including Tim Tams, Kellogg’s cereals, ­Arnott’s Shapes biscuits, Band-Aids and Cadbury chocolates, among others.

In announcing the multi­million-dollar boost to the ACCC to help it with its action against super­markets and retailers, Anthony Albanese said his government was ensuring Australians weren’t “taken for a ride” by Coles and Woolworths. “Today we are announcing a crackdown on dodgy supermarket practices,” the Prime Minister said.

Anthony Albanese in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Treasurer Jim Chalmers in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The $30m funding boost will help the ACCC conduct more investigations and enforcement in the supermarket and retail sectors, while ensuring it was more able to “proactively monitor behaviour” where there were concerns that companies were falsely justifying higher prices.

It follows Labor last week announcing it would seek to pass a new mandatory food and grocery code before the next election, which would see Aldi, Coles, Woolworths and Metcash face multimillion-dollar penalties for serious breaches of the code.

The Treasurer said the new code – along with the extra funding to the ACCC and ongoing inquiry into the supermarket sector – would help make pricing fair, boost competition and “make sure that there are significant consequences for supermarkets who do the wrong thing”.

“We’re taking decisive action to help Australians get fairer ­prices at the supermarket checkout, in stores and online,” Dr Chalmers said.

Coles defended its inflated ­prices in a statement in September, claiming the jump in grocery bills was because of “Coles’ own costs rising”.

“Coles sought to strike an appropriate balance between managing the impact of cost price increases on retail prices and offering value to customers though the recommencement of promotional activity as soon as possible after the establishment of the new non-promotional prices,” the supermarket said.

It follows Coles apologising at the end of last year for raising ­prices on products that it had promised would remain “locked”, promising refunds after a complaint was lodged by consumer advocacy group Choice.

Woolworths said it remained “committed to offering many ways for customers to save at the checkout”, including through the Prices Dropped program that the ACCC is set to target as part of the court proceedings.