The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) filed a statement of agreed facts with the Federal Court of Australia on June 13 to support its case against Woolworths (ASX:WOW) and Coles Group (ASX:COL), which allegedly conducted deceptive discounting practices, the Federal Court's website showed.
The regulator claims that Woolworths and Coles used fake or illusory promotions by raising prices on about 250 grocery items each, then reducing them to suggest a bargain, despite many of these promotional prices being higher than previous shelf prices.
The statement of agreed facts allows the court to focus on whether the retailers' discounting practices were misleading, rather than disputing individual prices, dates, and discounts for over 500 items. According to a Monday report by The Australian, the statement covers 276 promotions from Woolworths on 266 unique grocery items and 255 promotions from Coles on 245 unique products.
A case management hearing is slated for Aug. 25, per the Federal Court's website.
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