{"id":495494,"date":"2026-02-21T22:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/495494\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T22:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:08:11","slug":"a-visual-guide-to-the-prices-that-landed-coles-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/495494\/","title":{"rendered":"A visual guide to the prices that landed Coles in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The pricing patterns of these six products help us understand why Coles stands accused of using its Down Down marketing campaign to dupe shoppers.<\/p>\n

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is suing Coles in the Federal Court, claiming the supermarket giant’s marketing strategies have deliberately misled shoppers.<\/p>\n

The consumer watchdog is using 12 sample products to argue its case.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at the pricing patterns for a few of them, starting with this baby formula.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

We’re going back to 2021 when, according to data provided to the court by the ACCC, this item would’ve cost $18 at the checkout.<\/p>\n

It was being marketed as part of Coles’s famed Down Down campaign.<\/p>\n

A red line shows when the item is part of that Down Down promotion.<\/p>\n

The formula stays $18 for 794 days \u2014 and that whole time it has a Down Down ticket.<\/p>\n

That’s more than two years at that price.<\/p>\n

But in March 2023, there’s a price rise.<\/p>\n

Coles lifts the price to $24 \u2014 a rise of $6 or 33 per cent \u2014 and puts a standard White ticket on the shelf.<\/p>\n

“White ticket” refers to the plainer black-and-white price tags Coles uses for products when they’re not on special.<\/p>\n

The formula has one of those white tickets for 23 days.<\/p>\n

Then it drops to $21.<\/p>\n

The product is once again advertised with a Down Down ticket, which also shows a “Was” comparison price of $24.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

But only a month earlier, the formula cost $3 less (17 per cent), and customers had been paying that cheaper price for more than two years.<\/p>\n

The ACCC argues this kind of marketing is “literally true” but also “utterly misleading”.<\/p>\n

ACCC legal counsel Garry Rich told the court Coles had temporarily increased prices on at least 245 products, before placing them on a Down Down promotion that was actually more than, or the same as, the price prior to the spike.<\/p>\n

It’s worth pointing out that the case is not about Coles raising its prices, which it is entitled to do, but whether its marketing tactics are fair.<\/p>\n

“Your Honour will have noticed the repeated use of the words ‘Down Down’ and the phrase ‘prices are down,'” Mr Rich said.<\/p>\n

“Your Honour will also have noticed the big red hand \u2026 pushing prices down. And the message was not only that prices are down, but they’re staying down.<\/p>\n

“Why on earth are you telling your customers the price is going down? They’re not.”<\/p>\n

Coles is defending the allegations and says they were genuine discounts when taking other factors into consideration.<\/p>\n

The supermarket giant argues the ACCC has failed to establish what a “regular” price should be and how long it should be offered for.<\/p>\n

The ACCC says Coles jacked up prices for a short period with the intention of establishing a higher “was” price.<\/p>\n

But Coles says that for most of the 245 items the case was examining, Coles had not increased the price for a very short period.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at another product highlighted in the ACCC case.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This yoghurt was $6 for 461 days.<\/p>\n

Then the price goes up. And 28 days later it goes back down.<\/p>\n

But its new Down Down price is 70 cents more than what it was before the initial price jump.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This $5 deodorant follows a similar pattern.<\/p>\n

It rose to $6.50 before being dropped to a Down Down price of $6, all in the space of a month.<\/p>\n

The ACCC is also highlighting several products where the patterns are a little less obvious because the price has fluctuated more, but nevertheless, there are similar examples of short spikes, followed by a new Down Down price.<\/p>\n

Take this 2-litre bottle of Coke as an example.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

At the start of 2021, a bottle cost $2.75.<\/p>\n

Coles advertises it as Down Down.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it goes on Special and drops in price for short periods of time.<\/p>\n

When Coles lifts the price significantly, it gets a White ticket, before quickly being put back on Special.<\/p>\n

But that new Special price is actually 27 per cent higher than what it was previously.<\/p>\n

And that $3.50 Special price soon becomes the new Down Down price.<\/p>\n

But that new Down Down price is 75 cents (or 27 per cent) higher than before.<\/p>\n

The same pattern happens with this toothpaste.<\/p>\n

The price fluctuates up and down, there’s a dramatic rise and the price comes down again, yet the toothpaste’s new Down Down price is more than what it was about a month earlier.<\/p>\n

Got the gist of it now?<\/p>\n

Well, there’s one more marketing campaign to throw into the mix.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Coles Locked campaign promises to lock the price of an item for a particular period.<\/p>\n

This Arnotts Shapes multi-pack is part of a Down Down promotion for more than a year.<\/p>\n

Then there is a price increase on a White ticket, before it drops down on Special. It quickly bounces back up again, before eventually returning back to a Down Down promotion.<\/p>\n

After a few months, it changes to a Locked promotion before returning to a Down Down ticket.<\/p>\n

All the while, it stays the same price, which is 50 cents higher than the original Down Down.<\/p>\n

Coles says offering accurate pricing and providing value for customers in a challenging cost-of-living period is something it takes seriously.<\/p>\n

It says the Down Down campaign helps to offer reduced prices on essential products for an extended period.<\/p>\n

“In the end, all prices are temporary. Nothing lasts forever,” legal counsel for Coles John Sheahan KC said in court this week.<\/p>\n

The data in this story, provided by the ACCC, is from January 2021 to April 2023.<\/p>\n

Coles is arguing the period being used in evidence was “a time of significant inflation in Australia and globally”.<\/p>\n

Mr Sheahan says the ACCC case is too complicated as it relies on an assumption that the average supermarket shopper understands the many factors that go into deciding a price, which includes detailed planning and forecasting.<\/p>\n

He says the Down Down prices do reflect a genuine discount if those factors are taken into account,\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Federal Court will decide whether the pricing and marketing actions behind the big red hand were legal.<\/p>\n

And Coles shoppers will decide for themselves whether they think those pricing patterns have been fair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pricing patterns of these six products help us understand why Coles stands accused of using its Down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,5301,104,32445,249691,9074,27815,8124],"class_list":{"0":"post-495494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-charts","12":"tag-coles","13":"tag-costs","14":"tag-down-down","15":"tag-prices","16":"tag-pricing","17":"tag-special"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}