Stocktake Australian Consumer Primer for 15 May 2026 – Coles/ACCC, CommBank household spending, Barbeques Galore

Research evidence excerpt

Stocktake Australian Consumer Primer for 15 May 2026 – Coles/ACCC, CommBank household spending, Barbeques Galore

J P M O R G A N Asia Pacific Equity Research

15 May 2026

Stocktake

Australian Consumer Primer for 15 May 2026 – Coles/

ACCC, CommBank household spending, Barbeques

Galore

ACKey themes we are exploring today: AustralianBryan RaymondConsumer Sector

(61-2) 9003-6750

• ACCC successful in price establishment case against Coles. The Federal bryan.raymond@jpmorgan.com

Court ruled that Coles made false or misleading representations about ‘Down Christina Kim

(61-2) 9003-7082

Down’ discounts in 13 of 14 sample products in the case (the one exception was christina.kim@jpmorgan.com

where no “was price” were used to demonstrate the savings). We have been J.P. Morgan Securities Australia Limited

critical of the supermarkets' behaviour during the last inflation cycle (the

reference period for this case); however, Coles has effectively been found

guilty of retrospectively breaking a rule which did not exist at the time. The

Federal Court believes a 12 week price establishment period is appropriate for

the sample products, which we consider very long by global standards

(typically 4 - 6 weeks). The ACCC and Coles statements were brief and the

Federal Court is yet to determine penalties. We expect Coles to appeal the

decision, but may decide to put this behind them. We were not surprised the

ACCC were successful in the case itself, with the focus shifting to the

magnitude of penalties. Theoretically, this could be $50m per offence or

$650m, or in a highly unlikely, worst case scenario, 10% of annual turnover

(~$4bn) for breaching consumer laws. Qantas’ $100m Federal Court penalty

over “ghost flights” in October 2024, in addition to ~$20m remediation