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Australia: ACCC rejects claims that supermarket test will hurt consumers

By  |  April 27, 2015

Claims that shoppers will be charged higher prices and be deprived of new stores under a proposed change to misuse of market power rules are false, the competition regulator says.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said claims by Woolworths and Coles, as well as the peak retailers body, that the adoption of the Harper review panel’s “effects test” would, ultimately, hurt consumers, were symbolic of the “very confused” and “strange” nature of the debate.

“I find it very hard to see how the [Australian National Retail Association] could think that bringing a new store into a new market could have a purpose or effect of substantially lessening competition,” Mr Sims said.

 

Full Content: The Sydney Morning Herald

 

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