this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
87 points (100.0% liked)

World News

39032 readers
2284 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Australia's major supermarkets should face hefty fines if they do not comply with an industry code of conduct when dealing with suppliers, a government-commissioned report said while rejecting calls to give regulators the power to break up the big chains.

"The existing Food and Grocery Code of Conduct is not effective. It contains no penalties for breaches and supermarkets can opt out of important provisions by overriding them in their grocery supply agreements. I firmly recommend the Code be made mandatory," Emerson said in the report.

Companies should be fined up to A$10 million or 10% of revenue if they do not comply with the code, according to the report. The final report is due in June. Woolworths and Coles booked sales of A$64 billion and A$41 billion in 2023.

The two biggest grocers in Australia ring up two-thirds of the country's grocery sales between them, prompting calls from growers and opposition leaders to break up the supermarket giants to improve competition and prices.

top 4 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Remove the 10 mill cap please and thank you

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Neoliberal governments ain't going to do shit about shit.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Probably also worth noting that Woolworths controls 48% of the supermarket spend in New Zealand as well, and recommendations to force both Woolworths and Foodstuffs (who control essentially the rest of the market) to split their wholesale and retail arms into independent companies was met with a luke-warm reaction from the centre-left government of the time, then quietly dropped by the centre-but-increasingly-not-really-right government who took over

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Same issue, merger buyouts. e.g. Safeway into Woolies in Aus, Progressive into FAL into Woolies in NZ. (not to mention FS NI was just created 2 years ago via the merger of FS Auckland and FS Wellington, and now is merging with FS SI). Nothing short of stopping merger buyouts creating monopolies in essential services will stop this problem, and I have no confidence it'll happen anytime soon. The fines they cop will be less than the revenue generated by increasing margin 1%, so it'll forever be on that edge where you're just not quite ripped off enough to let yourself and your kids go hungry