Wesfarmers has a team of 20 or so lawyers on the sixth floor of the Coles headquarters in Tooronga, whose work centres on handling the six of seven areas of interest the competition watchdog has developed for the supermarket industry.
Woolies also keeps its lawyers active on the same issues, now Australian Competition and Consumer Commission boss Rod Sims has made the big two retailers a key focus.
Tomorrow, when Sims addresses the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Sydney, the retail industry could be expected to feature, which will of course then be of interest to the luncheon's host, Clayton Utz.
The firm is also one of Woolies key lawyers.
The ACCC retail focus centres on the following:
* Shopper dockets and whether the big two leverage their market power to unfair advantage in the petrol industry
* The co-owned Informed Sources website, which provides live coverage of the petrol market
* Whether the supermarkets are using their power over suppliers unfairly
* Whether the supermarkets us their supplier promotional calendars to front-run house brands
* Whether the supermarkets claims about fresh food, free range eggs and the like are false and misleading
* Acquisitions of small stores in new markets, which may amount to substantial power in that local market
* Leverage in the hardware market.
This list of interest areas, which individually has been extensively canvassed in this column in the past, is but a guide, but it shows how every time Woolies boss Grant O'Brien, or Coles's Ian McLeod, scratches his backside, the ACCC will be watching and ready to flood their head offices with Section 155 discovery notices.
There are also myriad industry lobby groups ready to help the ACCC with its inquiries and, of course, every politician has a story to tell about the supermarket giants.
At each Senate Estimates Committee meeting, Sims hears from Nick Xenophon, who campaigned against supermarkets cutting prices, and Barnaby Joyce, who wants to know why the ACCC isn't using his Section 46 amendments.
The ACCC's job is to ensure the market place is working competitively for consumers, but it also understands the retailers may privately think that all this public scrutiny is designed to minimise any political backlash.
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