Jon Duffy: Consumer NZ CEO on the Commerce Commission filing criminal charges against the supermarkets

Consumer NZ says inaccurate pricing and misleading specials could collectively cost customers millions of dollars.

The Commerce Commission has filed criminal charges against Woolworths NZ and two individual Pak’n Saves - accusing them of breaching the Fair Trading Act. 

It says investigations are ongoing. 

Consumer chief executive Jon Duffy says minor amounts for individual shoppers are significant when it's nationwide and happening every day. 

"If every shopper's going to one of the other supermarkets that's been charged 50 cents extra that they shouldn't have been charged for their baked beans - actually, that really adds up."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Commerce Commission is going to file criminal charges against Woolworst,
New Zealand and two individual Pack and Save supermarkets. The
ComCom has accused the supermarkets of having inaccurate pricing and
misleading specials. John Duffy is the CEO of Consumer en Z. John,
Welcome to the show. Do we know exactly what the
supermarkets are alleged to have done here?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
The Commers Comission's media release is a little bit they
but based on the complaint that Consumer end Z put
in the kick this whole thing off, it looks like
there's a range of conduct involved. So it could be
from something as simple as the shelf an item on
the shelf at the supermarket, the shelf price not matching

(00:42):
what you're charged at the till, through to site more
complicated potential offending around misleading promotions. So examples where the
on special price is actually more expensive than it was
the item was originally, or where you know two for
one deals where when you buy the twin pack is

(01:03):
actually more expensive than buying each item individually.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Is it fair to say this is minor stuff in
terms of a shopper's bill.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, for each individual shopper who turns up and I
don't know it's charged fifty cents extra for their tin
of baked beans. It might appear minor in isolation, but
if you expand that out across all shoppers nationwide every day,
if every shopper is going to one of the other
supermarks has been charged fifty cents extra that they shouldn't
have been charged for their baked beans, actually that really

(01:36):
adds up, and there's potentially millions of dollars. But over
the course of a year.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Except that these charges and will put more ways to assign.
For a second, but Pack and Say it is named
specific stores because you know, obviously they are franchises. So
you've got Silverdale and you've got one in Hamilton. So
that's only two stores that they've managed to come up
with from that entire business.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, the Commission's media release also notes that there's more
to come, so that they're saying their investigations are ongoing.
So based on what we've seen, we would expect more
food stuffs brands supermarket. So that's Pack and Say for
Square and a New World to be involved in this
enforcement action, have to wait and see.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
It's will worse because war worst has come out and said, look,
obviously we will cooperate. We don't know what's happening yet.
We're waiting to find out ourselves. But sometimes errors happen.
We're updating our technology, we have a refund policy. We're
a big business. We make mistakes. What are you saying, Well.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
To be frank, the supermarkets have been running that line
for years but nothing has improved. So you know this
isn't new news. People have been being overtarched to the
supermarkets for years and rather than investing in technology that
could improve this, I mean, it's twenty twenty four. Getting
the price on the shelf the same as the price

(02:55):
in your database. It's not rocket science. It's actually one
of the fundamentals have been a grosser. There is enough
getting this wrong.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
I guess for people who are listening to this, it's
not going to make a huge I mean, this is
going to be in the district court. Cases like this
are usually settled. It might be a million bucks for them,
you know, whack on the back of the hand with
a wet bus ticket, But for most consumers it's annoying
when they do it, but it's not going to save
the bank.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Is that at an individual level? You're right, although actually,
you know, thirty percent of consumers we've surveyed tell us
that they notice pricing discrepancies, but they move on. That means,
you know, seventy percent of consumers are not noticing these discrepancies.
So we don't actually know what the cost of the economy,

(03:42):
or cost to New Zealand consumers of overcharging is when
you extrapolate that out across everybody who's shopping every day.
Anything that we can do that actually reduces the amount,
the excessive amounts that the supermarkets are profiting and actually
leaves money and consumers back pockets is a good thing,
And ultimately we shouldn't be sitting aside and letting major

(04:04):
businesses consistently mislead consumers about the price of their goods.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
John, thank you very much for joining me. John Duffy,
the CEO of Consumer and Zen.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
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