Coles hit with $2.5 million fine over 'fresh' bread

Madeleine Heffernan
April 10, 2015
The Age
Supermarket giant Coles has been fined $2.5 million and ordered to pay costs after breaking Australian Consumer Law by falsely advertising bread products as “freshly baked” and “baked today”.
The judgement was handed down in the Federal Court on Friday, after a two-year battle with the competition regulator sparked by complaints from former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett about a loaf of Coles bread made in Ireland.
Coles was last year banned for three years from advertising that its bread was made or baked on the same day it was sold when this is not the case.
Coles was also ordered to display a Federal Court notice in its stores and on its website telling shoppers that it had broken Australian Consumer Law by falsely advertising bread products as “freshly baked” and “baked today”.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched proceedings against Coles in June 2013, accusing it of misleading consumers to think bread was made on the day at the store when, in some cases, the bread had been partially baked and frozen, months earlier in factories in Denmark, Germany and Ireland.
In June, Coles was found guilty by the Federal Court of misleading shoppers. Federal Court Chief Justice James Allsop said at the time that Coles had breached three sections of Australian Consumer Law.
“In talking to customers about our bread range we did not deliberately set out to mislead anybody, but we accept that we could have done a better job in explaining how these products are made.
“We are proud of the quality of our bread, whether baked from scratch in-store or ‘par baked’ by our Australian suppliers and finished in our ovens.”
ACCC head Rod Sims will hold a press conference this afternoon.
with Beau Donnelly