Australia's competition watchdog has recommended a 99.9 per cent reduction in the penalty it originally sought against supermarket giant Coles, proposing the company pay just $200,000 rather than $150 million for misleading consumers through its Down Down pricing promotions.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had initially pursued the massive nine-figure fine over allegations that Coles raised prices on hundreds of grocery items before cutting them back and labelling them as part of the promotional campaign — giving shoppers the false impression they were getting a genuine discount. The regulator has now told the Federal Court it supports a dramatically lower penalty.
The development has landed like a dropped meat pie on a hot footpath in Canberra. At a moment when cost-of-living pressure has become the defining political issue in Australia, with grocery prices running hot and household budgets squeezed, the spectacle of the country's consumer watchdog walking back its own landmark penalty demand has drawn immediate public fury.
The ACCC's recommended fine of $200,000 equates to roughly 0.0005 per cent of Coles' annual revenue. In the 2024-25 financial year, Coles posted revenue of approximately $43 billion. The original $150 million figure would itself have amounted to less than half a per cent of turnover — the sort of fine economists and consumer advocates had already argued was insufficient to change corporate behaviour in a market dominated by two players.
The Down Down scheme — featuring yellow tags and television advertising pitched at budget-conscious shoppers — was central to Coles' brand identity for years. The ACCC alleged the promotions were built on a systematic practice of inflating prices in the weeks before they were nominally slashed, meaning the advertised discount was against an artificially elevated base price.
The case is proceeding in the Federal Court and a final penalty decision remains with the judge. The ACCC's recommendation does not bind the court, and some legal observers have noted the regulator's revised position may reflect case-management pragmatism rather than a fundamental retreat from the underlying allegations.
Mate, that is cold comfort to every Australian who has stood at a supermarket shelf watching a price tag flash yellow while their wallet empties. The $200,000 proposed penalty is less than the weekly advertising budget Coles spends on the same Down Down jingle the ACCC says was used to mislead consumers.
Australia's grocery market is among the most concentrated in the developed world. The duopoly of Coles and Woolworths controls roughly 65 per cent of the national grocery market. The ACCC itself, in a 2024 supermarket inquiry, documented systematic pricing practices it described as harmful to competition and consumers.
The parliamentary inquiry into supermarket pricing, which ran through 2024 and 2025, heard extensive evidence that both major chains engaged in pricing strategies designed to create the perception of value rather than deliver it. Whether the regulatory response proves adequate to that documented behaviour now sits before the Federal Court.
