Labor pledges to ban supermarket price gouging

The taskforce, which would provide advice on introducing an excessive pricing regime for supermarkets, would include Treasury, the ACCC and other market and regulatory experts.

“While Australia does have protections that prevent companies abusing their market power, unlike other countries these laws do not prohibit excessive pricing,” Labor said in a press release on Sunday.

“Our reforms will ensure the ACCC can investigate a broader range of concerning pricing practices by supermarkets with market power.”

The supermarket duopoly has been under pressure following accusations that it was price gouging during a cost-of-living crisis. This culminated in a Senate inquiry and intense media scrutiny in 2024.

An ACCC report released in March 2025 concluded that Coles and Woolworths had little incentive to compete vigorously on price, allowing grocery prices to rise. The report also found that the profit margins of supermarkets had increased throughout the recent cost-of-living crisis.

The ACCC noted that it is not illegal to have large profit margins. However, it said that greater competition in the supermarket sector would likely lead to lower prices for customers, higher quality of service and slimmer profit margins for supermarkets.

“Consistently high profits relative to their international peers may indicate there is scope for more competition in the supermarket industry,” the report said.

The Greens welcomed the proposed reforms to price gouging rules, noting that they had previously introduced their own bill to stop supermarket price gouging in October, which Labor and the Liberal party both voted against.

“The Greens get Labor to act. If Labor had voted for our bill last year, shoppers would have cheaper groceries already, but this move is better late than never,” Adam Bandt, leader of the Greens, said in a press release.

“If the Prime Minister is looking for some more homework to copy, he should get dental and mental health into Medicare, wipe all student debt, cap rent increases, and stop new coal and gas and native forest logging,” the Greens’ press release added.

As a first step to crack down on supermarket price gouging, Labor said it would introduce mandatory and harmonised minimum information and notification requirements about prices and changes in product sizes for both consumers and fresh produce providers.

Labor has also made the Food and Grocery Code mandatory from 1 April 2025, increased resourcing for the ACCC to undertake enforcement, and strengthened the Unit Pricing Code and introduced penalties for breaches.

The ACCC report also noted that the dominance of large supermarkets disadvantaged the farmers and small businesses that supplied them.

As part of its broader crackdown on supermarkets, Labor pledged to invest in supplier education so small businesses know their rights when dealing with the supermarkets, and extended unfair trading practice protections for small businesses trading with firms that have considerably greater market power.

Labor also took the opportunity to attack the Coalition’s proposed public sector cuts, which it said would limit the ability of public regulators to crack down on supermarket misconduct.

“Peter Dutton’s $350 billion in cuts will hit regulators, like the ACCC, making it easier for conduct that hurts Australians to go unchecked,” Labor said in a press release.