Coles and Woolworths being taken to Federal Court for falsifying promotions and faking discount prices, leaving shoppers ripped off

Coles and Woolworths are finally about to pay their comeuppance as they are being taken to Federal Court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the ACCC).

The consumer regulator announced that it has commenced proceedings – separate ones against both supermarket chains for “allegedly breaching the Australian Consumer Law by misleading consumers through discount pricing claims on hundreds of common supermarket products”.

Both Coles and Woolworths misleaded consumers through their supposed “discount pricing” on hundreds of supermarket products. Both chains sold products at regular long-term prices that remained the same – excluding very short-term specials – for at least six months and in some cases, at least a full year. Products were then subject to price rises of at least 15 per cent for brief periods before being placed in “promotions” (Woolworths’ insisted their ‘Prices Dropped’, and Coles’ continued their redundant ‘Down Down’ marketing.

Said ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb: “We allege the new ‘Prices Dropped’ and ‘Down Down’ promotional prices were actually higher than, or the same as, the previous regular price. And that Woolworths and Coles breached the Australian Consumer Law by making misleading claims about discounts, when the discounts were, in fact, illusory.”

“We also allege that in many cases both Woolworths and Coles had already planned to later place the products on a ‘Prices Dropped’ or ‘Down Down’ promotion before the price spike, and implemented the temporary price spike for the purpose of establishing a higher ‘was’ price.”

So it seems all those TikToks we’ve been seeing, where punters have taken it upon themselves to reveal fake price tickets and hyped promotions were in fact true all along.

In this tough economic climate, both Coles and Woolworths should be ashamed of themselves – as should their hack CEOs, Leah Weckert (for Coles) and Brad Banducci (Woolworths) who were witnessed lying through their teeth on national television by millions of viewers.

Overpaid bullshit artist and resident fucknut, Brad Banducci, is the current CEO of Woolworths Ltd but will soon be on his way out – with a massive payout packet, of course; money that came about through Woolworths falsifying “discounted” products.

“Many consumers rely on discounts to help their grocery budgets stretch further,” continues Cass-Gottlieb, “particularly during this time of cost of living pressures. It is critical that Australian consumers are able to rely on the accuracy of pricing and discount claims.”

The ACCC has estimated that Woolworths and Coles sold tens of millions of the affected products and derived significant revenue from those sales – all between September 2021 and May 2023.

Examples of these products include Arnott’s Shapes biscuits, Band-Aids, Libra tampons, Tim Tams, Twisties, Coca-Cola, and Sanitarium Weet-Bix.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has also backed the ACCC and has blasted Coles and Woolworths for their “completely unacceptable” and “unAustralian” price gouging.

Antonino Tati