00:00Here's one example of what Woolworths was doing according to the Consumer Watchdog.
00:07For about two years, a family pack of Oreos costs $3.50.
00:12Woolies then hiked the price up to $5 for 22 days, before moving it back to $4.50.
00:19The supermarket giant called it a price drop.
00:22And that was actually an over 20% increase, a 29% increase in price compared to the prior
00:29regular price.
00:31The lawsuits claim Woolworths did this over 20 months with more than 260 items, including
00:38Tim Tams, cat food and dishwashing liquid.
00:41And Coles did it over 15 months with more than 240 items, including Arnott Shapes, Band-Aids
00:48and Wee Bicks.
00:50When the discounts are not genuine, consumers are actually foregoing buying products at
00:54another store, which is offering genuine discounts.
00:57The allegations have landed with a thud for shoppers.
01:01They've taken advantage of a situation.
01:03Oh, dreadful.
01:04I mean, I can hardly afford to go shopping.
01:06It should be a fairly hefty fine.
01:08If proven, the supermarkets face penalties of up to $50 million for every breach of consumer
01:14law.
01:15The penalty has to be high enough to be not a cost of doing business for such major companies,
01:21to deter them from this conduct in the future and deter all retailers.
01:25Customers don't deserve to be treated as fools by the supermarkets.
01:30The ACCC is already in the middle of an inquiry probing pricing practices and competition
01:36in the highly concentrated sector.
01:38There needs to be more transparency around supermarket pricing and it should be much
01:43easier to be able to track price changes over time.
01:47Their price gouging has also put upward pressure on inflation and therefore interest rates.
01:52Neither company fronted up to cameras today.
01:55Coles said it will defend the case and that rising costs had caused some increased prices,
02:01while Woolworths said it will carefully review the ACCC's claims.
Comments