(Reuters) -Woolworths and Coles Group said on Friday they would defend a class action lawsuit brought by a law firm in the Australian Federal Court over the grocers’ allegedly misleading rebate claims.
On Thursday, Gerard Malouf & Partners launched a lawsuit against the country’s two biggest supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, accusing the duo of promoting misleading discount claims on everyday products.
Earlier in September, Australia’s consumer watchdog took the supermarket chains to court over “illusory” discounts, claiming the companies had profited from revenue from the affected millions of units of product.
The country’s incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been under pressure to do more to combat rising food prices and is heading to elections within a year, said the actions cited by the regulator would be unacceptable if they were true.
However, Gerard Malouf & Partners clarified that its lawsuit was different from that of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), as the former is seeking refunds for affected customers.
The consumer protection law firm said its lawsuit was launched to recover the price difference consumers were forced to pass on between advertised ‘discount prices’ and real prices for hundreds of frequently purchased products at Coles between February 2022 and May 2023, and at Woolworths. between September 2021 and May 2023.
“We estimate that the average Australian consumer could be eligible for a refund ranging between A$200 and A$1,300+, depending on their shopping habits and purchases at these retailers,” the law firm’s chairman Gerard Malouf said in a statement on Thursday .
The law firm alleged that everyday items at both companies were subject to price increases and that the discounted prices were higher or the same as the price before the increase.
(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee; Editing by Alan Barona and Maju Samuel)
