John Rolfe
News Limited Network
July 30, 2013
Woolies CEO Grant O’Brien says no-one from the ACCC has asked him to rein in shopper dockets. ACCC chairman Rod Sims begs to differ.
Mr Sims this afternoon told News Corp Australia he aired concerns about supermarket petrol discounting with Mr O’Brien at a meeting late last year.
“It has been raised,” Mr Sims said after Mr O’Brien said that no-one at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had asked him to stop discounting fuel through supermarket shopper dockets.
Before responding, Mr Sims said he had confirmed his recollection by checking with Joe Dimasi, the outgoing ACCC petrol commissioner, who was also present during the wide-ranging discussion in Sydney.
“Since that meeting I’ve made my concerns known in Parliament and elsewhere,” Mr Sims said, including through correspondence and public comments.
In a speech in Melbourne yesterday, Mr Sims foreshadowed legal action if the supermarkets did not reduce the size and duration of the discounts. For more than a year the ACCC has been formally investigating docket schemes.
Earlier today, during a media briefing on Woolworths’ annual sales results, Mr O’Brien answered a question on shopper dockets by saying: “No one has come to me and said ‘stop doing what you are doing’.”
The Australian Automobile Association today said “please stop what you are doing”.
“He (Mr O’Brien) should have greater respect for his customers,” the AAA said via its Twitter account.
Mr O’Brien defended the shopper docket scheme by saying it is delivering savings to households under cost-of-living pressure.
While Woolworths doesn’t plan to heed the ACCC’s warning and pull back from discounting fuel via shopper dockets, it doesn’t have a “see-you-in-court” attitude either, Mr O’Brien said.
Mr Sims said: “If we determine that we believe there’s a breach of the (Competition and Consumer) Act and we get reasonable grounds advice which we need (to start proceedings), we’ll act accordingly.
“If we do get to that position I imagine court action will ensue,” Mr Sims said, given the attitude of the supermarket chains.
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