In an unprecedented move, Australia’s consumer watchdog has exercised new powers to block the opening of a Coles supermarket, on the grounds it could knock out smaller competitors in the surrounding region.
Coles has been wanting to open a second supermarket and a Liquorland in the nation’s biggest outback city, Kalgoorlie.
The town already has a Coles, Woolworths, two franchised IGA supermarkets, and two independent grocers.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has been assessing Coles’ acquisition of a site near Kalgoorlie’s airport for the last six months, under new notification and assessment powers it has been given to monitor supermarket competition.
“The ACCC is satisfied that the acquisition, if put into effect, would, in all the circumstances, be likely to have the effect, of substantially lessening competition in a market,” the consumer watchdog has announced today.
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