The Albanese Government is cracking down on shrinkflation and working to make it easier for Australians to compare grocery prices by strengthening the Unit Pricing Code.
To help inform next steps, the Albanese Government will release a consultation paper on Monday outlining options to help shoppers make more informed choices and realise the full benefits of unit pricing.
We are seeking community and stakeholder views on options, including:
- Introducing a new shrinkflation notification regime
- Improving unit price display requirements (including readability and prominence)
- Expanding the scope of retailers covered by the Unit Pricing Code
- Addressing inconsistency in units of measure to improve in-store and cross-retailer price comparisons
- How to introduce civil penalties for non-compliance
This consultation is part of our election commitment and series of actions to help Australian consumers get a better deal at the checkout. These include providing the ACCC with over $30 million to address harmful or misleading conduct in the supermarket and retail sectors, funding CHOICE to give shoppers more information on supermarket prices, increasing penalties for breaches of the competition and consumer law, and making supermarket price gouging illegal.
It follows the ACCC’s Supermarket Inquiry, which noted that unit pricing helps consumers to easily compare prices across different sizes and brands of products in store and online. The Government agreed in principle with all recommendations made in the report, including consulting on the Unit Pricing Code (recommendation 5) and that supermarkets should be required to publish notifications when package size changes occur in a manner adverse to consumers (recommendation 6).
Submissions can be made online on the Treasury consultation hub from Monday 1 September until 19 September 2025.
Quotes attributable to Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, the Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP
“If a chocolate bar loses 2 squares but keeps the same price, that’s not magic – it’s shrinkflation.
“Clearer information means Australians can spot the change and decide for themselves whether it’s worth it.”