SUPERMARKETS – AUSTRALIA – REGULATION

Woolworths not guilty of land-banking, says supermarket’s property boss

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Original article by Jessica Yun
Brisbane Times – Page: Online : 19-Nov-24

Woolworths managing director of property Ralph Kemmler has appeared before the ACCC’s supermarket inquiry, with Kemmler denying that it engages in land banking, which it defines as accumulating land for future retail or industrial sites. The ACCC has a different definiton of land banking, defining it as the accumulation of land for the purpose of blocking competition, and ACCC counsel assisting Naomi Sharp SC asked Kemmler whether a section in its 2023 internal balance sheets titled ‘sites held for strategic reasons’ was a reference to land banking, to which Kemmler replied that he did not believe so.

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WOOLWORTHS GROUP LIMITED – ASX WOW, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION

Supermarket hit could rock us all

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Original article by Jess Malcolm, Geoff Chambers, Lydia Lynch
The Australian – Page: 4 : 9-Apr-24

The Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry has expressed reservations about any push to make the food and grocery code of conduct mandatory rather than voluntary. ACCI CEO Andrew McKellar has responded to the release of Craig Emerson’s interim report on his review of the code of conduct by warning that excessive regulation could have "unintended consequences". Amongst other things, Emerson has recommended fining supermarkets up to 10 per cent of their turnover for breaches of the code. Meanwhile, Opposition leader Peter Dutton has described Emerson’s inquiry as a "Mickey Mouse review conducted by a Labor mate"; Emerson is a former federal Labor minister.

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AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Supermarkets warned on pricing

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Original article by Ronald Mizen
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 16-Jan-24

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb says it could potentially take legal action against a major supermarket chain in the next 12 months for breaching consumer law. Although the ACCC does not have price monitoring powers when it comes to supermarkets, it does have a role in investigating misleading and deceptive conduct. Cass-Gottlieb noted that the ACCC is concerned about the issue of ‘was, now pricing’, whereby chains offer a discount on an item, but may have engaged in deceptive behaviour by increasing the price of the item for a short time beforehand.

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