Australia's competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has begun federal court proceedings in Sydney against Woolworths, the country's largest supermarket chain, alleging it deliberately misled shoppers through its "Prices Dropped" promotion program. The ACCC claims that between September 2021 and May 2023, Woolworths temporarily inflated the prices of at least 266 products before labelling them as discounted — meaning the so-called promotional prices were often the same as or higher than the original shelf prices. Woolworths has denied the allegations, saying it "fundamentally disagrees" with the ACCC's claims and arguing that price adjustments reflected genuine supplier cost pressures during a period of high inflation.