Coles and Woolworths hit back at price gouging claims
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
More news: Coles and Woolworths have hit back at price gouging claims as the cost of living become a a key election issue. Over the weekend, PM Anthony Albanese said Labor would introduce legislation to make the practice illegal if elected, despite the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) finding no evidence of price gouging in its year-long inquiry released last week.
A Coles spokesperson told SBS: “What's needed are measures that tackle the real factors driving higher grocery prices, which are rising costs such as energy, fuel, labour, insurance, production, freight and distribution," they said.
A spokesperson for Woolworths told SBS that it had handed over thousands of documents and millions of data points to the ACCC inquiry, detailing how economy-wide inflation is impacting suppliers. "We recognise our customers have experienced several years of significant inflation, with an escalation in the cost of mortgages, rent, transport, insurance, energy, food and many other household essentials."
Woolworths said that it has already taken action on many of the ACCC report’s recommendations to improve the experience and transparency for customers and suppliers.
The Coalition has previously called for the introduction of divestiture laws to address anti-competitive behaviour in the supermarket sector.
Labor makes supermarkets an election target, pledges to ban price gouging
The news: Major grocery chains could face fines for unfairly raising prices under a Labor plan to outlaw price gouging by supermarkets.
The context: A Senate inquiry into supermarket prices in May recommended price gouging be made illegal, with Coles and Woolworths facing unprecedented unpopularity among consumers.
On Saturday night, the first full day of the federal election campaign, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that a re-elected Labor government would outlaw the practice – which some experts believe has contributed significantly to inflation.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would be tasked with policing the new regime, with Albanese announcing a taskforce would be established into how the rules could be enforced.
And with the supermarkets increasingly unpopular during the cost-of-living crisis,Labor has announced a number of measures designed to rein them in over recent months.
Saturday's announcement comes after Labor announced a plan to tackle so-called ‘shrinkflation’ in October: bigger fines for supermarkets which breached a code designed to give customers clarity over the price of their products.
Labor pointed to the European Union (EU), United Kingdom and several US states as inspiration for the move.
While the European Union does not have specific price gouging bans, it can issue fines on major companies which abuse their market dominance by imposing “unfair selling practices”.
A Senate inquiry into supermarket prices, chaired by the Greens, recommended powers to break up major retailers in May. Labor senators rejected that proposal, which they warned could “unintended consequences that have the potential to make Australian consumers and farmers worse off”.
The numbers: Woolworths fell 239 places to become Australia’s most distrusted brand, according to polling released by Roy Morgan in January.
What they said: “Australian families deserve a fair price at the checkout and Australian farmers deserve a fair price for their goods,” Albanese said.
