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<\/p>\nThe Green Party wants supermarkets to face fines of up to $10 million for charging “unreasonable” prices for groceries, under a new election policy aimed at tackling “price gouging.” <\/p>\n
The proposed Member’s Bill would make it illegal for supermarkets to charge prices deemed as excessive compared with the cost of supplying a product, plus a reasonable profit margin. <\/p>\n
Party leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick said New Zealanders were paying too much at the checkout while supermarkets were “raking in excess profits of a million dollars a day”. <\/p>\n
“While Luxon\u2019s Government has talked tough, prices at the check-out have continued to rise,” Swarbrick said. <\/p>\n
“Parliament can now actually do something meaningful in its final few weeks before the election by supporting this common-sense Bill, to reduce New Zealanders\u2019 bills. <\/p>\n
“At the end of the day, surely, that\u2019s why we\u2019re all there in the first place.” <\/p>\n
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The proposed Member’s Bill would make it illegal for supermarkets to charge prices deemed as excessive compared with the cost of supplying a product, plus a reasonable profit margin. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n
The Commerce (Excessive Pricing in Retail Grocery Industry) Amendment Bill would form part of the party’s affordable food election policy, which was due to be announced in full next month.<\/p>\n
It would be placed in the members\u2019 ballot by Green MP and consumer affairs spokesperson Ricardo Men\u00e9ndez March. <\/p>\n
Under the proposed legislation, the Commerce Commssion could apply to the courts if it believed a supermarket had breached the ban. The courts would ultimately be responsible for deciding whether prices were excessive. <\/p>\n
Supermarkets would also be required to keep records of their pricing and provide them to the commission upon request. <\/p>\n
“Breaches would carry penalties of up to $10 million, three times the value of the commercial gain, or 10% of turnover,” Men\u00e9ndez March said.<\/p>\n
“This is consistent with Australia\u2019s approach, which brought in the same ban on 1 July this year with the same penalties we are proposing here, following its own reviews into supermarket market dominance.”<\/p>\n
Swarbrick said restrictions on unreasonable prices had previously existed in New Zealand under the Commerce Act 1975 before being removed during deregulation in the 1980s.<\/p>\n