Consultation on the Retail Grocery Industry Code of Conduct (the Code) has been extended until next year to give consumer and business groups the opportunity to have their say on unit pricing in supermarkets.
The Code requires large grocery retailers display the unit price of grocery staples, together with the headline price, and is being reviewed to assess its effectiveness before the policy lapses on 1 October 2019.
The consultation opened last month and has already generated a high level of interest with a consumer survey on consumer experiences with grocery unit pricing receiving more than 500 responses in the first two weeks.
Previous consultations have identified interest in exploring a range of issues such as how unit prices are displayed and whether the obligation to display unit prices should be extended from large format grocery retailers to smaller grocery stores or more widely in the retail sector.
I’m encouraged that consumers and business have been engaging on whether to remake the Code, and whether it would benefit from any amendments. I encourage all stakeholders to contribute to this process.
The Government has also released a Discussion Paper, which is available to download from the Treasury website, where submissions can also be lodged.
The consultation period was due to close on 18 December 2018, but submissions can now be provided up until 28 February 2019.