Australia fines Coles over milk supply deals; flags Brownes' pricing practices

Coles

22/05/2026 03:39

May 22 (Reuters) - Australia’s competition watchdog said on Friday that Coles COL.AX and dairy firm Brownes Foods Operations each paid A$39,600 ($28,270.44) after receiving infringement notices for restrictive milk supply terms and unclear pricing, respectively.

Here are some details:

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleges that Coles published two milk supply agreements that required exclusive supply to the nation’s No.2 grocer while imposing volume caps on production.

The regulator did not disclose the counterparties to whom the agreements were issued.

ACCC claims Brownes failed to clearly spell out minimum prices throughout the supply period or justify the reasons for those minimum prices, in two of its agreements.

Volume caps embedded in exclusive milk contracts are especially troubling, the regulator said, as they suppress farmers’ output while shutting them out of alternative processors.

The action comes after a court last week found that Coles misled consumers by raising prices on hundreds of items, then touting discounts that still exceeded earlier sale prices.

($1 = 1.4008 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

((Tanishk.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com; X: @thatstanishk;))