Coles loses court case

[Bobby]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-14/ ... /106673800


Coles found to have misled shoppers on discounted items
in bombshell Federal Court case

3h ago

A close up of a red sign with Coles spelt out in white letters.
The consumer watchdog said the supermarket giant misled shoppers with some items on its "Down Down" promotion.  (ABC News: Billy Cooper)

In short:

The Federal Court found the majority of the pricing tickets submitted to the court were not offering genuine discounts and would have misled an ordinary consumer.

It found the supermarket giant did not sell the products at the higher price for long enough before putting them on the "Down Down" promotion.

What's next?
The judge will also rule on a similar case against Woolworths at a later date.

Supermarket giant Coles broke consumer law by misleading shoppers on discount prices, a Federal Court judge has found.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) sued Coles, alleging it misled shoppers with fake discounts on hundreds of common household items under its prominent "Down Down" promotional campaign.

Judge Michael O'Bryan handed down his judgment in Melbourne this morning, finding that in 13 of the 14 pricing tickets submitted to the court, the discount was not genuine, and would have misled an ordinary customer.

The judge found Coles did not sell products at a higher price for at least 12 weeks before discounting them.

"I have concluded that 13 of the 14 'Down Down' tickets … were misleading because the relevant products were not sold at the 'was' price stated on the ticket for a reasonable period and as a consequence the discount represented on the tickets was not genuine," Justice O'Bryan said.

"Coles engaged in conduct in trade or commerce that was misleading."


The ACCC took the supermarket giant to court over the prices it charged on 245 common household items, including paper towels, dog food and yoghurt, under its prominent "Down Down" promotion between February 2022 and May 2023.

The consumer watchdog claimed the supermarket giant misled shoppers by jacking up the price of an item for a short time, before putting it on a discount.

[Bobby]

If Coles gets a $100 million fine they will
jack up the prices so we all pay for it.
There are no winners here.

[Bobby]

On another note -

you've got to be careful when buying food.
Almost every isle at Coles or Woolies has food full of:
salt, sugar, bad fats and dangerous chemicals.
Their fresh food is very expensive.
Obesity and diabetes are at plague proportions -
people are literally dying from unhealthy food choices.

[Bobby]

How fresh is the food?

All supermarket apples are old - even if they cost $4.90 per kilo.
They are put in cold nitrogen storage and kept for up to
9 months before selling at premium prices.
They put new apples in cold storage so they are unavailable.

[Bobby]

When I was a boy - back in the 1970s -
the shops would only sell fruit in season.
If you bought apples they were fresh and would last for 6 weeks in the cupboard -
in fact they were a bit hard to eat at first as they were tough from
being only a few days off the tree.
They were the nicest apples I've ever eaten -
crispy, juicy and bursting with flavor and freshness.

[Black Orchid]

On another note -

you've got to be careful when buying food.
Almost every isle at Coles or Woolies has food full of:
salt, sugar, bad fats and dangerous chemicals.
Their fresh food is very expensive.
Obesity and diabetes are at plague proportions -
people are literally dying from unhealthy food choices.

People need to take responsibility for what they shove into their mouths. You can't blame the supermarket if people make bad choices. That's on them!

[Black Orchid]

Coles and Woolies have a monopoly here and they shouldn't. They need more competition and we need more choices.

[Bobby]

On another note -

you've got to be careful when buying food.
Almost every isle at Coles or Woolies has food full of:
salt, sugar, bad fats and dangerous chemicals.
Their fresh food is very expensive.
Obesity and diabetes are at plague proportions -
people are literally dying from unhealthy food choices.

People need to take responsibility for what they shove into their mouths. You can't blame the supermarket if people make bad choices. That's on them!

I've seen obese people with a supermarket trolley piled high with:
sugary soft drinks, potato chips and at least a dozen packets of junk food.

[Black Orchid]

On another note -

you've got to be careful when buying food.
Almost every isle at Coles or Woolies has food full of:
salt, sugar, bad fats and dangerous chemicals.
Their fresh food is very expensive.
Obesity and diabetes are at plague proportions -
people are literally dying from unhealthy food choices.

People need to take responsibility for what they shove into their mouths. You can't blame the supermarket if people make bad choices. That's on them!

I've seen obese people with a supermarket trolley piled high with:
sugary soft drinks, potato chips and at least a dozen packets of junk food.

That's their choice don't you think? Or do you want government control over what you eat?

[Bobby]

On another note -

you've got to be careful when buying food.
Almost every isle at Coles or Woolies has food full of:
salt, sugar, bad fats and dangerous chemicals.
Their fresh food is very expensive.
Obesity and diabetes are at plague proportions -
people are literally dying from unhealthy food choices.

People need to take responsibility for what they shove into their mouths. You can't blame the supermarket if people make bad choices. That's on them!

I've seen obese people with a supermarket trolley piled high with:
sugary soft drinks, potato chips and at least a dozen packets of junk food.

That's their choice don't you think? Or do you want government control over what you eat?

Maybe we could do with a few adverts on TV about healthy eating?

It could be paid for out of our health/ hospital budget -
and would save us a lot of money if people listened?