High supermarket prices could be outlawed after Senate report

Accused mushroom killer Erin Patterson pleads not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges

Supermarkets could be legally barred from setting exorbitantly high prices if the government adopts the recommendations of a parliamentary inquiry.

The Senate Select Committee on Supermarket Prices today handed down its final report following six months of public hearings and submissions – including the particularly fiery questioning of Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci.

It has made 14 recommendations, including outlawing “the charging of excess prices (otherwise known as price gouging)”.

“This is a landmark report with serious proposals to tackle the price of food, and the profiteering that has done so much harm to the people of Australia,” Greens senator Nick McKim, who chaired the committee, said.

“The committee has produced concrete steps that would tackle these problems head-on.”

“Chief among these is the recommendation that price gouging be made illegal.

EXPLAINED: What does the supermarket code of conduct actually do?

“This would mean that corporations couldn’t just arbitrarily increase prices without facing consequences from the courts.

“This would be a significant new power to stop unreasonable pricing that has been rampant for years because of a lack of competition.”

Forced divestiture powers to break up supermarkets that “abuse their market power or act unconscionably” was also recommended in the final report, although not all members of the committee agreed with that decision.

While forced divestiture has been backed by the opposition and Greens, the government is against the move, and Labor senators Glenn Sterle – who was the inquiry’s deputy chair – and Louise Pratt hit out at the recommendation in the final report.

“Labor senators do not support passage of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Divestiture Powers) Bill 2024, and do not support the committee’s first recommendation around supermarket-specific divestiture powers,” they wrote.

They also said that many of the other recommendations shouldn’t be considered until the ACCC hands down its own supermarket report.

The consumer watchdog is due to provide an interim report in August, but its final findings won’t be given to the government until February next year.

The Senate inquiry’s other recommendations include:

• Establishing a prices and competition commission to examine and monitor prices and price setting across the economy and require supermarkets to publish historical pricing data.
• Making the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct mandatory with significant penalties for breaches, and be expanded to green life industries and any retailer that stocks food and grocery products.
• Giving the ACCC powers to investigate land banking and unfair trading practices.
• Making supermarkets adopt mandatory standards for unit pricing, and notify customers of changes in sizes or prices of products, to help prevent shrinkflation
• Standardising discount and promotional terms to prevent supermarkets from promoting fake discounts.
• Introducing stronger health and safety standards for supermarket employees.
• Further investigating multinational food manufacturers’ impact on price increases in Australia.
• Requiring supermarkets to publish data on food waste and consider whether unrealistic cosmetic standards are adding to waste.