Federal Court looks to keep sprawling supermarket lawsuits together
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The news: A trial in multiple lawsuits against Coles and Woolworths over their discounting practices is likely to focus on a sample of discounted products, rather than more than 200 products linked to each supermarket, Federal Court of Australia Judge Michael O'Bryan has said.
Lawyers for the supermarkets and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will work over coming months to come up with an agreed sample of products linked to the regulator's lawsuits against both companies. The sample is likely to be used in related class action cases, O'Bryan told the court.
The numbers: The ACCC has alleged that Woolworths and Coles each sold products at regular long-term prices which remained the same, excluding short-term specials, for at least six months and in many cases for at least a year.
The products were then subject to price rises of at least 15% for brief periods, before being placed in Woolworths’ ‘Prices Dropped’ promotion and Coles’ ‘Down Down’ promotion, at prices lower than the price spike but higher than, or the same as, the regular price that applied before the price spike.
The ACCC alleged the conduct involved 266 products for Woolworths at different times across 20 months, and 245 products for Coles at different times across 15 months.
The context: O'Bryan is trying to keep multiple lawsuits against Woolworths and Coles over their pricing practices run as efficiently as possible, as a potential second class action looms.
In a case management hearing today, O'Bryan said even if law firm Carter Capner Law decides to proceed with a class action against the supermarkets that captures a broader range of products to other group claims already filed in the court by Gerard Malouf & Partners, that should not be an issue to running the cases together.
O'Bryan said there would only be an issue if the claims from the class action lawyers are different to one another, or the ACCC's case.
The ACCC and class action court proceedings come as the regulator is also conducting a broad inquiry into the supermarket industry.
The next case management hearing in the ACCC's lawsuits is scheduled for 23 May, by which time lawyers are to have conferred on agreed facts and plans for a trial.
The next case management hearing for the class action lawsuit is scheduled for 7 February to clarify whether a competing, second class action is being pursued by Carter Capner and if so, how the class actions will potentially be run together.
The source: Federal Court
