The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched a Federal Court trial in Melbourne against Coles, alleging the supermarket artificially inflated prices on 245 products for short periods before promoting illusory discounts under its Down Down campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Examples include Arnott’s Shapes biscuits, Band-Aids, Strepsils and dog food, where prices spiked briefly\u2014often 7-28 days\u2014then fell back to or above prior levels, misleading customers amid cost-of-living pressures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coles denies any deception, blaming supplier cost increases from inflation, while a similar case against Woolworths awaits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the ACCC wins, penalties could reach hundreds of millions, with consumer groups eyeing refunds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Coles denies any deception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":370483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[19610,19609,19608,993],"class_list":["post-370482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-accc","tag-coles-supermarkets","tag-federal-court","tag-melbourne"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t