The Federal Court in Australia has found that Coles Supermarkets Australia (COL.AX) misled customers through its "Down Down" discount promotions, a statement from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) shows.
The proceedings, initiated by the ACCC in September 2024, covered 245 products sold under Coles' "Down Down" program between February 2022 and May 2023. The regulator alleged that Coles engaged in a pricing practice where it temporarily increased the price of products by at least 15% for a short period, and then applied a "Down Down" discount, but in many cases, still higher than, or the same as, the product's earlier regular price before.
According to the ACCC, this created the impression of genuine price reductions when, in reality, the discounts were misleading or "illusory," potentially affecting consumers' ability to assess true value while shopping for everyday essentials.
The Court examined a sample of 14 "Down Down" tickets from the broader set of products and found that Coles made misleading representations in 13 of those cases, supporting the ACCC's claim that the discount messaging breached Australian Consumer Law.
"We had received complaints by consumers about the 'Down Down' discounting claims made by Coles. We understand how important it is for consumers to get value for their supermarket purchases, and decided to take action to test the discounting practices in Court," ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
Acknowledging the decision of the court, Coles said it is reviewing the judgment. It said in a statement, "The court found that all price increases resulted from supplier cost price increases and were, therefore, commercially justifiable."
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.