The regulator just told four of the world’s biggest online marketplaces to pull dangerous magnet toys off Australian shelves, and the Fair Work Commission has handed the country’s lowest-paid workers a real pay rise from 1 July. Today’s brief unpacks what both moves mean for your hip pocket, where the deepest EOFY savings now sit (hint: Hello Molly), and which homepage stores are running deals worth a closer look this morning.

ACCC pulls banned magnet toys from Amazon, eBay, Kogan and Fruugo

If you have bought a so-called magnetic chess or magnetic battle chess set from Amazon, eBay, Kogan or Fruugo in recent months, stop using it and contact the seller for a refund. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission yesterday ordered all four marketplaces to delist toys and games containing small high-powered magnets that have been outright banned in this country since 2012, and three of the four have already agreed to issue refunds.

The regulator is targeting magnets small enough to swallow with a flux index above 50 kG mm squared, the threshold linked to internal injury when two or more are ingested. Reporting by PPC Land notes Kogan, Amazon and Fruugo have already provided or offered refunds, while all four platforms have committed to contacting affected buyers directly and blocking sellers from relisting the same products. ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe urged consumers to keep affected products out of children’s reach immediately.

This move lands just four days after the regulator filed Federal Court proceedings against Amazon Commercial Services (its first court action against an online marketplace operator) over alleged button battery warning failures on children’s backpacks. As reported by the ABC, the case centres on unicorn-themed toddler backpacks stored in Amazon’s Australian fulfilment centres in 2022. Two enforcement actions inside a fortnight tells you everything about the regulator’s posture toward overseas-owned marketplaces this year.

Shopper takeaway: If you bought any magnetic chess set or magnet construction toy in the last few months, check your purchase history on those four platforms. Refunds are on offer with no fight required. The safer alternative for kids’ games this EOFY is to stick with Australian-owned toy specialists with locally enforced safety compliance.

Minimum wage rises 4.75 per cent from 1 July

The Fair Work Commission has delivered its Annual Wage Review 2026 decision, lifting modern award rates by 4.75 per cent and the standalone national minimum wage by 5.97 per cent. The new minimum hourly rate climbs to $26.13, with weekly pay rising to $1,004.90 for a standard 38-hour week. The change kicks in on 1 July, the same day EOFY sales close.

ABC business reporters covering the announcement noted the lift exceeds the prevailing inflation rate, meaning the country’s lowest paid will see a genuine real wage gain rather than just keeping pace with rising prices. Nearly three million Australians benefit, including retail workers, hospitality staff and aged care assistants who sit on or near award rates.

Shopper takeaway: The pay rise lands the same week tax-deductible EOFY work purchases stop counting for FY25/26. If you are buying a laptop, monitor, work uniform or tools you can legitimately claim, do it before 30 June. Hold onto receipts. Items bought after 1 July only count toward next year’s return.

EOFY tech: the deals worth chasing before 30 June

EOFY 2026 is now in full swing across the major Australian retailers. Tracking from the TechRadar AU team shows the deepest tech discounts currently sit at Lenovo Australia (up to 47 per cent off select PCs), HP Australia (up to 45 per cent off select laptops, code FUTURE5 for an extra trim), Dyson Australia (up to $651 off vacuums, purifiers and hair tools) and Samsung Australia (up to $637 off Galaxy devices). JB Hi-Fi is running its EOFY hub with featured cuts on robovacs, TVs and smartwatches including the Garmin Epix Pro 2 at half price.

A few standouts worth a closer look: the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura at $1,299 (was $2,259, 42 per cent off), the Dyson Gen5detect Absolute at $898 (was $1,549), and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ Wi-Fi 256GB at The Good Guys for $894 (was $1,794). All ship across Australia and all are eligible work-related tax deductions if used for income-producing purposes. Hold onto your receipts.

Special of the Day: Hello Molly, up to 80% off

Today’s top headline percentage across our tracked sales pool sits at Hello Molly, the Melbourne-founded womens fashion label, which has stated its current sale runs up to 80 per cent off. The page advertises layered savings of “up to 30 per cent, 50 per cent, even 80 per cent off” across dresses, tops, knits and going-out pieces. We spot-checked product badges this morning and confirmed live 40 per cent off markers on items including the Ford Mini Dress in Ivory at $47.40 (was $79).

Hello Molly is Australian-owned with local fulfilment, so AU shipping cut-offs apply normally and returns sit under Australian Consumer Law. Browse the Hello Molly sale here. As always, verify stock and confirm the discount holds when you reach checkout, headline percentages are a guide, not a guarantee.

Other deals worth a look on the homepage

The four featured stores on the itsonsale.com.au homepage are running EOFY sales worth a scan this morning. David Jones: selected Sportscraft styles and full-priced boxed dinner sets from Ecology and Porto up to 60 per cent off, plus the EOFY beauty event still live. Repco: workshop tool and battery deals tied to its EOFY workshop event. Dan Murphy’s: rolling EOFY savings on premium spirits and wine cases. Spotlight: discounted homewares, fabrics and winter manchester. All four are Australian-owned with local fulfilment.

What to watch tomorrow

The RBA’s next monetary policy decision sits on the calendar later in June. EOFY tech sales typically peak in the second-to-last week of the month as retailers race to clear stock, so expect deeper Dyson, Samsung and JB Hi-Fi cuts from roughly the 15th. Keep an eye on whether the ACCC opens further enforcement against any of the four marketplaces named in yesterday’s takedown order. The regulator has explicitly kept penalty proceedings on the table.

It’s On Sale is Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Welcome to Issue 02. Day two of EOFY 2026 opens with a sharp follow-up to yesterday: the ACCC has now ordered Amazon, eBay, Kogan and Fruugo to pull dangerous magnetic toys, a permanent ban that’s been on the books since 2012 and still wasn’t being enforced at the listing level. Meanwhile David Jones has expanded its Mid-Season Sale, Repco’s catalogue runs another twenty-four hours, and the RBA’s monthly press conference dialled back any hope of a rate cut soon.

Today’s headline: Magnetic toys yanked from four marketplaces

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued formal takedown requests to Amazon, eBay, Kogan and Fruugo over toys containing small high-powered magnets that have been banned in Australia since 2012, according to Luís Rijo’s reporting for PPC Land. The products at issue are “magnetic chess” and “magnetic battle chess” style games: pieces marketed as toys but containing loose, high-flux magnets a child can swallow.

ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe framed the risk bluntly:

“Small high-powered magnets can cause catastrophic, life-threatening internal injuries if swallowed, particularly for young children.”

All four platforms have committed to removing the listings, contacting affected customers, and putting measures in place to stop sellers from relisting the same products. Kogan, Amazon and Fruugo have agreed to provide refunds to buyers caught in the investigation; eBay is not named in the refund commitments. If you’ve bought a magnetic chess or magnetic battle chess set from any of these marketplaces, the official advice from the ACCC is: stop using it now, store it out of reach of children, and contact the seller or marketplace for a refund.

This is the regulator’s second escalation in a week, only four days after it took Amazon to the Federal Court over button-battery warnings on children’s backpacks, per Nadia Daly’s reporting for ABC News. The signal for shoppers is clear: if a deal looks suspiciously cheap on an overseas-fed marketplace, the safety paperwork probably hasn’t been done.

RBA: don’t bank on a rate cut just yet

Governor Michele Bullock fronted the post-meeting press conference today and underlined that the Reserve Bank is still chasing the 2 to 3% inflation target, per the official RBA transcript of today’s Q&A. Translation: easing isn’t on the agenda. CBA, ANZ, NAB and Westpac are now all forecasting a hold at the 16 June meeting, the first unanimous bank call of 2026, according to JMD Mortgages’ June preview.

For shoppers, the takeaway is uncomfortably simple. The cost-of-living squeeze isn’t loosening this winter. If you’ve been waiting for “things to get cheaper” before pulling the trigger on a big-ticket EOFY purchase, the macro picture says: buy when the deal is genuinely good, not when the rates are.

EOFY 2026: where the real bargains are landing

Day two of EOFY has settled the noise of opening day. The strongest activity right now is in the categories retailers actually need to clear before 30 June stocktake: winter fashion, white goods, automotive consumables and homewares.

David Jones Mid-Season Sale is the standout on our homepage today (more below). Repco‘s national catalogue (50% off oils and more) has 24 hours left to run before the next promotion cycles in. Dan Murphy’s “Dan’s Best Deals” continues its EOFY wine and spirits clearance, with the strongest case-deal pricing landing on Australian shiraz and cabernet. Spotlight‘s storewide promotion remains the cheapest path to winter quilts and curtains this week.

Special of the Day: David Jones Mid-Season Sale

From the homepage roster, David Jones gets the spotlight. The Mid-Season Sale is now running across women’s, men’s, beauty and homewares. The strongest discounts traditionally land on premium skincare gift sets, designer denim and the dinnerware/cookware rails. Verified live today: stock is moving on the sale rails, AU shipping is unchanged on standard timing, and David Jones price-matches against its own previous ticketed prices, so the markdowns you see are anchored to a real ninety-day reference.

Why we like it for an EOFY-2026 shopper: David Jones is Australian-owned, locally fulfilled, the loyalty program (David Jones Rewards) layers on top of the sale price, and gift-with-purchase is back on premium beauty for the next two weeks. If you’ve been eyeing a single premium beauty piece or a cookware upgrade, this is the window where the price actually moves.

See David Jones and the rest of today’s featured stores on It’s On Sale.

Other deals worth a look

Repco: last 24 hours on the 50% off oils and filters catalogue. Useful timing if you’re due for a service before the King’s Birthday long-weekend road trip.
Dan Murphy’s: EOFY wine clearance is genuinely deeper than the front-of-store stack suggests. Check the “Last Bottles” rail for true single-case markdowns rather than the festival end-cap promotions.
Spotlight: winter quilts and curtains storewide; the Comfort Living quilt range is moving on multi-buy pricing this week.

Reader takeaway

Two themes from day two: the watchdogs are tightening the screws on cross-border marketplaces, and the RBA isn’t coming to your rescue. The signal both ways points the same direction: spend at Australian-owned retailers who do the safety paperwork, and only when the price actually beats a 90-day reference. The homepage four (David Jones, Repco, Dan Murphy’s, Spotlight) all meet that bar today.

Tomorrow we’ll track the David Jones beauty gift-with-purchase pieces that are actually worth queuing for, plus any consumer response from the four platforms named in the ACCC’s takedown notices.

It’s On Sale: Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Welcome to the very first edition of the It’s On Sale Daily Brief, your morning shortcut to what’s actually worth your money in Australian retail today. We track the homepage deals, watch the watchdogs, and translate the headlines into plain dollars-and-cents. Today is the official kickoff of EOFY 2026, so grab your coffee: the calendar has flipped, the catalogues are out, and the ACCC has come out swinging at one of the world’s biggest marketplaces.

Today’s headline: ACCC takes Amazon Australia to court over button-battery backpacks

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has launched Federal Court action against Amazon Commercial Services (its first case against an online marketplace operator), alleging Amazon supplied 41 children’s “Unicorn Toddler” backpacks containing button batteries without the mandatory consumer warnings, with another 267 sitting in Amazon fulfilment centres between June and November 2022, according to Nadia Daly’s reporting for ABC News.

ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said: “Button batteries pose a serious hazard for young children. If swallowed or inserted, they can cause severe internal burns and injury, and in some cases death.” The regulator is seeking penalties, injunctions and a compliance program. The case is significant because it puts a marketplace, not just a manufacturer, on the hook for product-safety standards, as Rajasik Mukherjee and Aamir Sheik Khalid noted for Reuters.

What this means for shoppers: if you’ve bought small toys, novelty key-rings or kids’ accessories from any large marketplace in the last few years, take five minutes today to check for accessible button batteries and printed safety warnings on the packaging. The ACCC’s product-safety hub has the steps for reporting and returns.

EOFY 2026 officially opens: where the discounts are real

From today, almost every major Australian retailer flips the switch on end-of-financial-year pricing. TechRadar Australia’s EOFY tech round-up, curated by the site’s local deals team, points to genuine markdowns across laptops, TVs and small appliances at JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys and Bing Lee, with the caveat that the headline “up to” percentages always hide a tiered structure underneath.

For the home and lifestyle side, The Australian Women’s Weekly EOFY guide tracks linen, manchester and homewares discounts at the usual suspects, and CHOICE’s consumer team has published its annual “What to know for EOFY 2026” primer reminding shoppers that the smartest EOFY play is comparing the current price to the 90-day price history, not the recommended retail price.

Reader rule of thumb for the next four weeks: if a “was/now” sticker doesn’t survive a 90-day price-check, walk away. The genuine bargains tend to surface in week two or three of the sale, not on day one.

EOFY car deals: dealer floors are heaving

The new-car market opened EOFY with some of the heaviest factory incentives in years. Josh Nevett’s wrap for CarExpert details BMW absorbing the GST-equivalent off select SUVs, plus stacked drive-away offers from Chery, BYD, Kia, Land Rover, Hyundai, Ford and Audi.

If you’re walking onto a lot this week, three quick consumer-side reminders: confirm the drive-away figure includes on-road costs in writing, ask whether the discount is dealer-funded (more wiggle room) or factory-funded (firmer), and remember that EOFY tax-deduction rules for vehicles bought in business names tighten after 30 June. The full ATO position is on the ATO depreciation page.

Special of the Day: Spotlight EOFY Mega Sale

Today’s Special of the Day comes from Spotlight, one of the Aussie retailers featured on the It’s On Sale homepage. Spotlight’s EOFY Mega Sale is now live in-store and online with sitewide discounts on quilt covers, towels, curtains, craft and storage, the kind of categories where a winter top-up actually pays for itself in heating bills.

Why we like it for today: Spotlight is Australian-owned with bricks-and-mortar stores in every state, so click-and-collect is genuinely fast, returns are painless, and you can lay hands on the product before paying. Pair the sale with a free VIP membership (it’s free to join at the checkout) to stack an extra members-only price on most lines.

Shopper tip: manchester and curtain pricing at Spotlight reliably drops a second time in the back half of June. If your need isn’t urgent,, watch the price and pounce on the second cut.

Other deals worth a look on the homepage

• David Jones: EOFY beauty and homewares event running across departments, with the strongest cuts traditionally on premium skincare gift sets and dinnerware.
• Repco: trade promotion currently in market (catalogue valid 20 May to 2 June, per Latest Catalogues) covering oil, filters and battery testers. Useful timing before a long-weekend road trip.
• Dan Murphy’s: EOFY wine clearance with case-deal pricing on Australian reds; check the “Last Bottles” rail for genuine markdowns rather than the front-of-store stack.

Reader takeaway

Day one of EOFY is mostly noise. The signal is on the homepage retailers above: Australian-owned, locally fulfilled, with prices you can verify against a 90-day history. And keep one eye on the ACCC case: if the Federal Court rules in the regulator’s favour, every overseas marketplace selling into Australia will be on notice for product-safety standards. That’s good news for the local stores who already do it properly.

Tomorrow we’ll track the early EOFY price drops that actually held, plus any next-day movement on the Amazon proceedings.

It’s On Sale: Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.