☕️ Why Coles’ ‘discounts’ are in court

Hope you weren’t planning on having yoghurt this morning. For months now, supermarket shelves around the country have struggled to keep up with demand for the silky stuff.

As Coles told TDA yesterday, the surge is being driven by “health-conscious Australians and protein-focused social media content”.

Godspeed in Aisle 2.

The quote: “More Australians will go to uni this year than ever before.”
Education Minister Jason Clare announcing the number of students starting university has increased by 4.6% on last year.

The stat: 35. The number of cars a 42-year-old man allegedly hit with a traffic cone in a hotel carpark in Sydney on Monday morning, according to NSW Police.

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Rape victim-survivor Gisèle Pelicot has said she plans to visit her abusive former husband in jail to “get answers” about new allegations against him.

Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in jail for drugging and inviting dozens of men to rape his then-wife.

Dominique and Gisèle’s daughter has also accused him of rape, and he is being investigated as a suspect in the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in 1991.

Dominique denies these allegations.

In 2020, Dominique was caught filming up women’s skirts at a supermarket in southeastern France. When police searched his devices, they found 20,000 images of men raping his wife Gisèle, who was unconscious.

When Gisèle was brought in for questioning, she told police she had no memory of the rapes and did not recognise any of the men in the images shown to her.

Dominique pleaded guilty to all the charges against him, including aggravated rape and drugging. He was sentenced to 20 years, the maximum sentence.

Many of the men Dominique had invited to rape his wife pleaded not guilty, alleging he misled them into believing they were participating in a consensual role-playing scenario.

All of the men on trial were found guilty and were sentenced to prison terms between five and 15 years.

Gisèle has given multiple interviews in recent days to promote her book, ‘A Hymn To Life’.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Gisèle said she wanted visit her ex-husband in jail to get “answers”.

Dominique and Gisèle’s daughter Caroline Darian has accused her father of drugging and raping her. Images of Caroline sleeping in her underwear were found on Dominique’s computer. He has given conflicting reasons for having the images.

Dominique has denied Caroline’s allegations.

In an interview with Newsnight, Gisèle said: “The incestuous look he cast on his daughter, I found utterly unbearable.”

Dominique is also being investigated for the murder of a 23-year-old woman in 1991, which has become a cold case.

He denies the allegations relating to the 1991 murder.

Gisèle told the BBC: “I dare hope he is not the perpetrator of this heinous crime, because otherwise it would once again be a descent into hell, both for me and for his children.”

1800 RESPECT: 1800 737 732.

Reporting by Annabel Whitehouse.

🎧 On today’s TDA podcast, Sam explains why the consumer watchdog is taking Coles to court.

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Supermarket giant Coles has been accused of misleading customers on the first day of a Federal Court trial.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is suing Coles over claims it breached consumer law by using “illusory” discounts. Coles denies wrongdoing.

It is the first of two cases against Australia’s major supermarkets. A trial against Woolworths will begin later in the year.

The consumer watchdog alleges both retailers “derived significant revenue” from selling “millions” of deceptively priced products.

Coles and Woolworths control around two-thirds of the supermarket sector.

In the 2025/26 financial year, Coles reported a net profit of $1.1 billion.

In September 2024, the watchdog announced it was suing the major supermarkets in separate lawsuits.

The ACCC analysed the price of hundreds of Coles grocery items from February 2022 to May 2023, and accused the supermarket of using misleading pricing across 245 products.

The ACCC accused Coles of “price spiking” several of its products — a practice where the price of an item is increased briefly before it’s ‘reduced’ to a price that is more expensive, or the same as, before the spike.

For example, Coles sold Strepsils Honey & Lemon Lozenges for $5.50 for around two years. It increased the price to $7 in October 2022.

The next month, the Strepsils were advertised with the supermarket’s “Down Down” discount label for $6.00 — $0.50 higher than the original price.

The “Down Down” promotion has been running at Coles since 2010.

It advertises discounted prices on items for sustained periods of times, rather than short-term sales.

The trial began in the Federal Court on Monday, with the ACCC accusing Coles of using its “price spiking” and its “Down Down” tags to unlawfully mislead customers.

On day one of proceedings, the ACCC’s barrister Garry Rich SC told the court:

“Why on earth are you telling your customers that your prices are going down, when they’re not?”

He called the “Down Down” campaign “an utterly inappropriate promotional mechanic to use in circumstances where everyone within Coles knows the price is going up.”

The ACCC website includes examples of “ways that a displayed price can be misleading”. This includes: “Stating the sale price is marked down from an earlier price when:

The items were not sold at that price for a reasonable period right before the sale started, or

Only a very small proportion of items were sold at that price right before the sale.”

Part of this case will include determining what a “reasonable period” is.

Coles has rejected the ACCC’s claims.

Its defence is expected to centre on supplier costs. Coles will also argue that 245 products identified by the ACCC were temporarily removed from the “Down Down” promotion.

In November 2024, the supermarket said the affected products were “sold at the non-promotional price... for up to six weeks,” before re-entering the “Down Down” program.

In opening arguments, lawyers for Coles said customers were aware of price fluctuations before purchasing products.

The ACCC is seeking “significant” cost penalties for Coles.

It will also seek mandatory community service orders, which would require the supermarket to fund a registered food/meal service charity.

The ACCC is seeking similar penalties for Woolworths in separate proceedings.

The trial is expected to continue over the next two weeks.

The Coles case will also serve as a precedent for the trial against Woolworths, which is set to commence in April.

When the watchdog announced it was suing both supermarkets in 2024, ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said: “Many consumers rely on discounts to help their grocery budgets stretch further, particularly during this time of cost-of-living pressures.”

“It is critical that Australian consumers are able to rely on the accuracy of pricing and discount claims.”

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

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In a dominant performance, the world number eight snapped the Canadian world number six’s streak of 78 consecutive service holds and did not face a break point. It’s de Minaur’s first indoor title and fifth ATP 500 crown. The 26-year-old said he was “so super happy,” with the result in the Netherlands. “It ended up being a great week here... I was just a step short the previous years, so it feels great to finally be able to lift the title.”

Reporting by George Finlayson.

In case you missed it, the Olympic Village has run out of condoms. (Yes, you read that right.)

Organisers said it was “due to higher-than-anticipated demand,” after they provided around 10,000 condoms for the 2,800 athletes.

Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told international media: “It clearly shows that Valentine's Day is in full swing in the village.”

The condoms, which have been provided to athletes at the Olympics for decades, will be restocked.