Coles to correct claims over $1-a-litre milk

BLAIR SPEEDY
APRIL 07, 2014
THE AUSTRALIAN
SUPERMARKET giant Coles has agreed to correct misleading claims about the price it paid farmers to supply its dollar-per-litre milk following an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
The ACCC said today that it has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from Coles over its cartoon video “Our Coles Brand Milk Story”, which the retailer promoted on social media YouTube and Facebook between February and May last year.
The regulator said it had received complaints from dairy farmer organisations about the video, which was created in response to public concerns about the impact of dollar milk, first introduced by Coles in January 2011, on the price paid to dairy farmers for supplying milk to processors.
“Coles represented in a video and cartoon on social media that the farmgate milk price increased from 86c per two litre bottle of Coles-brand milk in 2010-11 to around 90c in 2011-12, when in fact this was an estimate and final industry figures showed the 2011-12 farmgate milk price actually decreased to 84c,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
The ACCC said that while Coles based the 90c figure on a forecast in an industry report, the retailer should have been aware that other reports predicted that the milk price was likely to decline.
Coles has admitted that the video would be likely to contravene section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law, which prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct, and has agreed to publish corrective advertisements on the same online platforms where the original video appeared.