Coles has been found to have misled its supermarket customers over discounts – and could now face hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties.
In a landmark case, Federal Court Justice Michael O'Bryan found 13 out of 14 sample sale tickets examined in the case had not offered genuine discounts, because Coles had not sold the products at a higher price for a reasonable period before promoting them with “Down Down” discounts.
In 2024, consumer watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced it was taking both of Australia’s biggest supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, to court. It alleged they had each offered hundreds of discounts that an “ordinary customer” might think were genuine, but which were misleading.
