ACCC takes legal action against Woolworths and Coles over allegedly misleading pricing claims
ACCC is trying to make sure there's bargain integrity for consumers
ACCC Takes Legal Action against Woolworths and Coles
beltdrive on 23/09/2024 - 14:21
Last edited 23/09/2024 - 14:30 by 1 other user
Last edited 23/09/2024 - 14:30 by 1 other user
Related Stores
Comments
- 1
- 2
This shit won't happen in the EU, at least not within 30 days of price increase.
"In all EU countries traders are obliged, when offering a discount, to indicate the lowest price applied to the item at least 30 days before the announcement of the price reduction."
That is right. In there they defined how promotions are advertised in a clear way. And they have a reason for that:
Misleading price reduction claims
Price reduction claims such as “was € 50, now € 25” can be misleading if the initial selling price (known as “anchor price”) has been inflated. In all EU countries traders are obliged, when offering a discount, to indicate the lowest price applied to the item at least 30 days before the announcement of the price reduction.
This information allows you as a consumer to assess whether the discount is genuine or not.
And the source of. that: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/unfair-treat…
Europa.Eu is the official web portal of the European Union (EU).
Do those criteria really enable the consumer to assess whether a price reduction is "genuine"?
I'd argue there's no way a consumer would know. The only people who would know are a select few in corporate head office who have access to supplier agreements & buy price arrangements &/or rebates.
Nothing is perfect but the EU solution would get rid of practices like this: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/15733546/redir
Basically something that doesn’t seem right like having fake “half-price” promotion every fortnight alternating with various deals for the same product.
Also you get rid of things like: today it’s $5 down from $6 half a year ago when we artificially increased the price.Having a strictly defined reference price will surely help as now you have a lot of misleading ones.
Also, there are various shop that advertise various savings comparing the current price to a RRP or some randomly chosen value like the price of a similar product at a competitor. I mean, WTF?
Compare the current price with your previous price for which you sold the product for, for God's sake. Even better, compare it to your lowest you had in the last 30 days before you start the current promotion and also mention the end date of the current promotion. That sounds so logical.
@ALBastru: Also I notice this. Harvey Norman IE (so EU business) doesn't seem to indicate the lowest price in 30 days, while Mediamarkt DE (also EU) actually does it. Examples:
https://www.mediamarkt.de/de/product/_hp-156-or-intel-n200-o…
https://www.harveynorman.ie/computing/chromebook/acer-chrome…
I wonder if Harvey Norman IE is also a massive (profanity) like they are down under…
It's not perfect, but at least it can prevent a short term price gouging like with Colesworth. EU Businesses can probably do the price gouging for more than 30 days, but idk if they will get sued for that LOL.
From the first example in the article:
From January 1, 2021 until October 11, 2022 Coles offered Strepsils for sale at $5.50. On October 12, 2022 the price increased to $7 for 28 days. On November 9, 2022 the product was placed on a “Down Down” promotion at $6. (Supplied: ACCC)
In this case, Coles is only a couple of days short of complying to the EU requirements anyway.
But also according to the EU if they sell that product for $6 for some time, they can't promote the fake reduction of price for too long as the $6 becomes the price that has to be compared to if they advertise any price reduction. Also in the EU price reductions have to mention the time interval.
You cannot have a product with the same price marked as having a reduction of the price for too long.
P.S.
Also, I am pretty sure that ACCC forgot to mention that during the interval of close to 2 years Coles sold Strepsils for that price probably when not on sale… Please try to find another brand product from ColesWorth that isn't on sale or have any some sort of a promotion for close to 2 years.
Keep in mind that during the period in question, the supermarkets were playing the "locked in until <insert date>" game. They knew there would be massive ramifications of the likely manufactured pandemic, production costs were on the way up etc.
My impression is the majors took full marketing advantage of the inevitable product cost increases.
It's just the promising the price won't increase until later date. Only an idiot wouldn't put dates in any kind of price promise/quotation.
What about eBay and their mate Jack every time there's a site wide sale?
Slap on the wrist and the cycle continues. Nothing will change. Maybe a fine of 0.01% of their revenue.
Still cheaper than grocers, butchers, iga… everyone do be price jacking off
So at my work I get a daily report of where our customers spend their money. Woolworth and Coles always number 1 and 2 except for Good Friday and Christmas day.
This is going to be good!! I can relate personally to what they are suing for.
A four pack of Mother energy drink has been $8.50 for a long long time at Woolworths. Overnight they changed the regular price to $12.50. That is pretty much a 50% increase. This happened a couple weeks ago.
Two weeks later you get the inevitable sale that the item is now $7.50… They actually advertise it as 40% off !!! This is an absolute lie as you are saving $1 from the price it has been for the past year.
Historically, this is a weak claim that even if this succeeds, theres not much of a punishment. If ACCC is truly committed to go after supermarkets, this is not much of a blow if at all.
ACCC needs to pay more for better lawyers and gets better advice.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/senior-silks-command-up…
ACCC is another retirement village. Why would they crate work for themselves. Petrol price rigging proves how weak they are
Maximum slap on the wrist after spending $millions of tax payers money to investigate.
ACCC will just go through the motions so that the government can say they did everything they could to help us
ACCC wants its cut
Aldi. Nuff said.
Hardly ever shop at Moles or Worthless
Amazon needs to start doing fresh and chill/frozen groceries, show us all how much these things can really cost when bought and sold in bulk.
They went after Qantas last year or so. Yet to see any improvements though. The only good thing that came out of that was they threw the leprechaun out before it could do more damage
We need reforms against Price gouging, rigging and profiteering on a wider scale applying to all businesses.
This will only result in a slap on the wrist at the most.
There should be mandatory Jail terms for the CEO and Board of Directors if found guilty.
Also should be slapped with $100 million+ fines which should only be recovered from the personal estates of the CEO and Board of directors.
If companies don't make a profit, they go out of business. Last time I checked, Coles profit margin on annual turnover was 3%. Aldi carry far less range and use far fewer staff than Coles and Woolies. I'd accuse the big two of inefficiency and spending far too much on marketing before price gouging! After the ACCC fuss dies down, Coles & Woolies will spend more on advertising to boost their reputation. Guess who'll pay at the register for that as well as any fines imposed!
IGA prices are higher than the big two. Did ACCC research IGA and accuse them of price gouging?
You are correct.
The actual issue that I don't think ACCC can see is that Coles/Woolworths are refueling anti competitive and greedy suppliers/manufacturers.
If we force Woolies/Coles to stop faking specials/markdowns to increase sales then we would see a lot more competition which would push prices down.
Totally agree, and something needs to be done about the amount spent on advertising.
If every business competed on price alone, what happens to the size of Ozb bargains🙂
- 1
- 2
Just add that to the many ways we as a population allow ourselves to be suckers ….
*Mining companies ( yeah sure we have a gas shortage)
*Power companies (yeah sure you’re got our best interests)
*Affordable / Quality housing (yeah, you all dont have developers in you back pocket and got rid of compliance and builders warranty)
*Unaffordable tolls (yeah you need to get back on the roads and not WFH)