21 November 2018

Have your say on Grocery Unit Pricing

The Morrison Government wants to hear from people and retailers whether the requirement to display the unit price of grocery staples, together with the “headline” price, needs reconsideration, before the current law lapses in October 2019.

Those grocery retailers that are subject to the Retail Grocery Industry (Unit Pricing) Code of Conduct (the Code) must display a unit price for grocery items they sell. For example, the unit price of different-sized packets of rice is displayed in common units as cents per 100 grams:

Unit pricing graph

The Code is intended to support stronger price competition amongst grocery retailers and to make it quicker and easier for consumers to compare the value of products from a price perspective.

The call comes before the 10th anniversary of mandatory unit pricing for grocery items sold by large grocery retailers.

People are encouraged to provide their experiences on when and how they use unit prices, whether it saves them time and/or money, how well unit prices are displayed and any others matter they wish to raise, as part of a short survey, which can be accessed here.

The Government has also released a Discussion Paper and is keen to hear from consumers, businesses and other stakeholders to identify whether the Code is fit for purpose, including:

  • whether the Code is likely to meet emerging market conditions;
  • how the key display requirements are meeting consumer needs;
  • whether exemptions remain appropriate, including for smaller grocery retailers and for particular product types; and
  • areas of non-compliance with the Code and any regulatory changes that may be required to improve compliance.

The Discussion Paper is available to download from the Treasury website, where submissions can also be lodged.

Consultation will run until 18 December 2018.