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A family pack of Arnott’s Tim Tams, Oreos, laundry powder, dog bones and other items will be at the heart of Woolworths’ courtroom stand-off this week with Australia’s consumer watchdog, which has accused the retail giant of selling groceries through discounts that weren’t real.
When the blockbuster case resumes in Sydney’s Federal Court on Tuesday, Woolworths’ lawyers will deny the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s accusations that it sold pantry staples in its “Prices Dropped” program at the same or an even higher price.
“We fundamentally disagree with the claims made,” Woolworths said in a statement to this masthead. “At no stage did we mislead or deceive customers.”
The ACCC launched the bombshell lawsuit against Coles and Woolworths in late 2024 in what has been described as the “case of the century” by former chairman Allan Fels. It follows Coles’ fortnight-long defence of the same accusations heard by the Federal Court in February, the final judgment for which is reserved until Woolworths’ case concludes.
Across the next fortnight, the ACCC’s top silks will call 11 Woolworths managers to the witness stand to face questioning about how it determined the shifting shelf prices of 12 items between September 2021 and May 2023.
The shopping basket, narrowed down from a full list of 266 items the ACCC is alleging Woolworths sold under “illusory” discounts, includes a 15-pack box of Tiny Teddys, plain Sakata rice crackers, Bragg apple cider vinegar, a 12-pack of Carman’s classic fruit and nut muesli bars, penne pasta, Fab’s Fresh Blossoms laundry powder, aloe vera Kleenex tissues, Lucky Dog bones, Nestlé Cerelac baby cereal, Stayfree’s ultra-thin night pads, as well as Oreos and a family pack of Tim Tams.
The case starts as Australians face a fresh bout of inflation and Woolworths is hit with a surge in requests from suppliers to lift prices to cover higher fuel costs, triggered by US-Israel’s war on Iran, which has choked the Strait of Hormuz. Fresh vegetables and milk are among items whose prices will go up in coming months, farmers say.
Woolworths will point to the “extraordinary inflation” induced by COVID-era supply chain chaos as the reason it had to hike prices on groceries. Coles made a similar argument.
“We were acutely aware that customers expected Woolworths to provide value wherever possible,” said the supermarket spokesperson. “Inflation also put pressure on our suppliers’ costs, and we worked with them to reduce the inflationary impact on customers through our Prices Dropped program.”
“We respect the ACCC’s role and have taken the allegations seriously.”
As inflation moved through the supply chain, supermarket practices came under heavy scrutiny during 2023 and 2024. Woolworths faced public and political criticism for its grocery prices and unfair dealings with suppliers, farmers and employees.
Multiple inquiries into the grocery sector included a Senate inquiry in which Greens senator Nick McKim threatened then-Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci with potential jail time, and a year-long ACCC inquiry that described Australia’s supermarkets as among the most profitable in the world but stopped short of declaring price-gouging.
Woolworths’ legal team is led by Robert Yezerski, SC, who represented Nine in accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation suit against the media company. Nine is the owner of this masthead. Yezerski also previously acted for the ACCC for a number of competition matters.
The ACCC’s legal team will be led by Michael Hodge QC, nicknamed the “baby-faced assassin” for his time cross-examining senior executives of the financial services industry in 2018 during the banking royal commission.
In February, ACCC lead barrister Garry Rich SC extracted a number of concessions from Coles: the court heard a senior manager concede that the supermarket raised its price between specials only so it could keep them on its “Down Down” promotion. “You’re not being charitable,” Rich said to Paul Carroll, who was previously the head of Coles’ pet food category.
Internal emails read in court revealed pricing negotiations between category managers and suppliers that appeared to suggest Coles would have to review and potentially cease stocking a supplier’s range of pet food. Multiple versions of Coles’ infamous “Down Down” jingle were played in court, described by Rich SC as “stick[ing] in one’s ears for longer than is healthy”.
Fels said of ACCC’s proceedings against Coles: “The discounts look to be pre-engineered and pre-planned.”
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