An Australian think tank claims Coles and Woolworths are using their market power to reduce competition and ensure they 'don't undercut each other'.
Australia's supermarket giants have been accused of a "secret pricing deal" that aims to keep their profit margins high through taking turns offering items on sale. The claim made by progressive public policy think tank The Australia Institute this week comes after Australia's consumer watchdog on Monday launched legal action against Coles and Woolworths over their 'Down Down' and 'Prices Dropped' campaigns.
Woolworths indicated it uses a "national pricing strategy" which it says means prices on the "vast majority" of products are the same across Australia, according to the report. Coles said it mainly uses state-based pricing but said in practice that meant "the prices for the majority of products or product categories are uniform nationally", the report noted.
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