{"id":620418,"date":"2026-04-21T02:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620418\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:12:09","slug":"consumer-watchdog-zeroes-in-on-woolworths-allegedly-fake-discounts-as-it-meets-supermarket-giant-in-court-consumer-affairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620418\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer watchdog zeroes in on Woolworths\u2019 allegedly fake discounts as it meets supermarket giant in court | Consumer affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The consumer watchdog is back in court and taking on Australia\u2019s largest supermarket chain, alleging Woolworths<\/a> deliberately misled shoppers with fake discounts.<\/p>\n

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission\u2019s (ACCC) case against Woolworths begins in the federal court in Sydney on Tuesday, almost two months after hearings wrapped up in its very similar case against Coles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This time, rice crackers, Tim Tams, apple cider vinegar, pasta and Oreos are among the everyday groceries whose shifting shelf prices will be scrutinised over a fortnight.<\/p>\n

The ACCC alleges Coles and Woolworths broke Australian consumer law by offering \u201cillusory\u201d discounts on hundreds of everyday products through the misleading use of their respective \u201cDown Down\u201d and \u201cPrices Dropped\u201d promotion programs.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Led by Robert Yezerski, SC, Woolworths\u2019 legal team is expected to vigorously defend the allegations, with the supermarket saying it \u201cfundamentally disagrees\u201d with the ACCC\u2019s claims and at no stage misled or deceived customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing Covid, there was a period of extraordinary inflation and we were acutely aware that customers expected Woolworths to provide value wherever possible,\u201d a Woolworths spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInflation also put pressure on our suppliers\u2019 costs and we worked with them to reduce the inflationary impact on customers through our \u2018Prices Dropped\u2019 program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Woolworths hearings come at a time of significant economic upheaval and widespread consumer concern about the cost of living amid a fresh bout of inflation and the prospect of more interest rate rises.<\/p>\n

The major supermarkets are also facing requests from suppliers to raise prices to help farmers cover drastically inflated fuel and fertiliser costs caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.<\/p>\n

Chart showing how Woolworths allegedly spikes the price of products to raise the base \u2018discounted\u2019 price<\/a><\/p>\n

The ACCC launched the litigation against Coles and Woolworths in 2024 after a period of sharp grocery price increases and with the major supermarkets suffering reputational damage after being the focus of a string of parliamentary inquiries.<\/p>\n

While Justice Michael O\u2019Brien is yet to hand down a decision in the Coles matter, the ACCC is expected to make a similar argument in its case against Woolworths.<\/p>\n

The ACCC alleges that, between September 2021 and May 2023, Woolworths temporarily increased the prices of at least 266 different products before placing them on \u201cPrices Dropped\u201d promotions at prices which were higher than, or the same as, their prices before the price spike.<\/p>\n

The ACCC and Woolworths have narrowed the list of products to be examined by the court down to 12: family packs of Arnott\u2019s Tim Tams and variety packs of Tiny Teddies, Bragg apple cider vinegar, Carmen\u2019s fruit and nut muesli bars, Woolworths\u2019 own brand penne pasta, Fab \u201cFresh Blossoms\u201d laundry powder, Kleenex aloe vera tissues, Lucky Dog bones, Nestl\u00e9 Cerelac baby rice, family packs of Oreos, Sakata plain rice crackers and Stayfree ultrathin night sanitary pads.<\/p>\n

The ACCC alleges Woolworths had planned \u201cin many cases\u201d to later place the affected product on a \u201cPrices Dropped\u201d promotion after the temporary price spike.<\/p>\n

The strategy is known as \u201cwas\/is\u201d comparative pricing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coles conceded during its own case that, by the time it raised the price of an item from the original to the spiked price, the supermarket had already planned and agreed with the supplier on what the third \u201cDown Down\u201d price would be.<\/p>\n

However, Coles denied misleading shoppers, arguing that the promotional prices were genuine discounts offered to shoppers after an increase in wholesale costs charged by suppliers during a period of rising inflation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The consumer watchdog is back in court and taking on Australia\u2019s largest supermarket chain, alleging Woolworths deliberately misled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-620418","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"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620418","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=620418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}