Megagrocers undertake to stop cross-subsidising on fuel & groceries
Earlier this year we contemplated whether the ACCC's allegations of predatory pricing against Coles and Woolworths would hold up in court and projected the unlikelihood of such claims being successful.
Turns out the supermarket giants weren't so self-assured as last Friday ColeWorths busted out with undertakings to restrict their respective fuel shopper docket schemes by:
- limiting discounts on fuel to supermarket customers to a maximum of 4 cents per litre (as at 1 January 2014); and
- funding fuel discounts from within fuel retailing operations, as opposed to being funded by their thriving groceries sales.
We think ColeWorths may have folded too soon but it's understandable why they'd rather get the ACCC off their case. Anyway, now that our local Woolies has a sushi bar, bakery and café inhouse, we'll never need to drive anywhere else so who cares about the petrol price. Gotta love a monopolist at work.
We do not disclaim anything about this article. We're quite proud of it really.
