Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Wednesday morning and Australia is still counting the cost of Telstra’s 8 July software meltdown. CEO Vicki Brady returned from overseas leave on Friday to apologise in person, a Senate inquiry has been ordered, and Communications Minister Anika Wells confirmed civil penalties of up to $30 million are on the table under laws introduced after the 2025 Optus outage. Compensation is open, but unlike the automatic $100 Optus credit, Telstra is asking customers to lodge a complaint and prove their loss. Elsewhere the ACCC’s final Digital Platform Services Inquiry report finds 72 per cent of Australian consumers have hit potentially unfair practices when shopping online, petrol has jumped 16 cents per litre since the 30 June excise cut expired, and Wednesday’s Top 5 is led by Sportsgirl at 90 per cent off.

Telstra CEO Says Sorry as Senate Grills Outage Fallout

Telstra’s network is back to normal, but the political fallout is only just beginning. CEO Vicki Brady, who was overseas on holiday when the 8 July outage hit, returned to Sydney on Friday morning and told a media conference: “We have let our customers and Australians down and for that I am deeply sorry” (ABC News, 10 July 2026). The 12-hour outage began at 4:30am AEST on Wednesday 8 July and affected roughly 25 million mobile services connected through Telstra, including customers on MVNOs Boost Mobile, Belong, ALDI Mobile and Tangerine Telecom (The Silicon Review, 8 July 2026). Regional trains on Victoria’s V/Line network were suspended, Tyro payment terminals dropped out across cafes and retailers, and 639 welfare checks had to be run on customers whose Triple Zero calls failed to connect (The Guardian, 11 July 2026). Seven of those callers needed emergency assistance after their initial call did not go through.

The root cause was a software defect in time-synchronisation servers at Telstra data centres in Sydney and Melbourne. The GPS timer briefly reset and, in the words of one expert quoted by The Guardian, briefly made the network behave as if it were November 2006, triggering a “digital domino effect” that disconnected customers within minutes. Michael Ackland, Telstra’s CFO, confirmed the outage was not a cyber attack and that fraudsters attempting to exploit the confusion had already been reported. On Saturday 11 July the Senate announced Telstra executives would be summoned for testimony as part of a broader inquiry originally opened after the 2025 Optus outage (ABC News, 11 July 2026). Communications Minister Anika Wells confirmed that under the post-Optus regulations, Telstra faces civil penalties of up to $30 million and must lodge a formal report with the Australian Communications and Media Authority within 45 days explaining what happened and how it will be prevented (Minister Wells press conference, 10 July 2026). Brady also confirmed that Telstra’s Remuneration Committee will formally review executive bonuses in light of the incident (The Guardian video, 10 July 2026). It is the third national outage in under a year for the $56 billion telco.

The consumer-side message is straightforward. If your mobile service, EFTPOS terminal, ride-share app or transport pass was affected between 4:30am and 4pm on Wednesday 8 July, Telstra is offering compensation but you have to ask for it and document it. Ackland told reporters at his 8 July press conference that customer compensation would be worked through once services were fully restored, and Telstra confirmed by the weekend that individual and small-business customers can lodge complaints through the online complaints form on telstra.com.au. Unlike the Optus outage where a $100 automatic data credit was applied to every affected customer, Telstra’s remedy is opt-in and needs supporting evidence (7NEWS, 14 July 2026).

How To Claim Compensation From Telstra This Week

Three practical steps for households and small businesses. First, put together the evidence now while the outage is still fresh. Note the times you tried to make a call or use data on 8 July, screenshot any bounced texts or failed transactions, keep receipts for any alternative transport (Uber, taxi, rideshare) you had to pay for on 8 to 9 July, and if you are a business owner, log every declined EFTPOS transaction and the estimated revenue impact. The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman is asking specifically for “detailed records of the outage’s effect on your customers and business partners, and any losses incurred,” and for small businesses to show “steps taken to protect your business from the impacts of losing service.”

Second, lodge the complaint. Residential and consumer customers should use the online complaints form linked from the Telstra outage page, or call 13 22 00 to speak with a representative. Small businesses can also use the online form or ring the dedicated business number on 1800 242 728. Ask for a service credit or refund for the hours you had no service, and if you incurred direct financial loss (missed sales, cancelled bookings, extra transport costs) request a compensation assessment through the same form. Telstra has warned that lost income beyond the direct outage window will not automatically be covered, so expect a case-by-case review (Telstra outage update, 9 July 2026).

Third, escalate if Telstra says no. If you cannot reach Telstra, or you are not satisfied with the response, the free Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman handles disputes on your behalf. Call 1800 062 058 or lodge online, and if you have current safety or health risks the TIO asks for a quicker response (TIO consumer guidance, 8 July 2026). Victorian passengers who paid for alternative transport between 6am Wednesday 8 July and 12pm Thursday 9 July can also claim reasonable extra transport costs from V/Line by uploading receipts, with claims due by Monday 27 July 2026 (OzBargain summary, 13 July 2026). Finally, stay alert for scam calls. Brady and Ackland both flagged that fraudsters are already ringing Telstra customers pretending to be from the telco. If you get a call about compensation you were not expecting, hang up and dial Telstra directly on 13 22 00 (Vicki Brady message to customers, 13 July 2026).

ACCC Report: 72 Per Cent of Aussie Online Shoppers Hit Unfair Practices

The ACCC has published the final report of its five-year Digital Platform Services Inquiry (DPSI), and the consumer-facing findings will resonate with any Australian who has bought something online in the last 12 months. Of Australians surveyed for the report, 72 per cent said they had encountered “potentially unfair practices” when shopping online, and 83 per cent supported a specialised independent external dispute resolution scheme for users of digital platforms (Johnson Winter Slattery analysis, 10 July 2026). The common practices identified across online retail marketplaces include manipulative design (false urgency, subscription traps, default settings that steer consumers away from their own preferences), fake reviews, and product safety issues. The ACCC also flagged that AI may exacerbate existing consumer harms or create new ones, particularly around scams and inauthentic reviews.

The report contains six recommendations. The two that matter most for shoppers are the economy-wide unfair-trading-practices prohibition (which the 2026 Unfair Trading Practices Act legislated on 2 July and takes effect 1 July 2027) and a new set of digital-platform-specific consumer measures including mandatory processes to remove scams, harmful apps and fake reviews, plus mandatory internal dispute resolution standards ensuring “accessibility, timeliness, accountability, the option to escalate to a human representative, and transparency,” and an independent external ombudsman scheme for online-marketplace complaints. Combined with the Telstra outage backlash and the 1 October card-surcharge rule change, this is arguably the strongest 12-month stretch for Australian consumer-law reform since the ACL first came into force in 2011.

Petrol Up 16 Cents Since 30 June; Card Surcharge Ban Locked In For October

The ACCC’s 18th weekly fuel price monitoring update shows national average unleaded has climbed to 167.5 cents per litre, up roughly 16 cents from the 30 June low point, after the government’s partial restoration of fuel excise on 1 July (ACCC weekly fuel monitoring, 10 July 2026). The remaining excise relief expires on 2 August 2026, at which point pump prices are expected to step up again. Practical shopper moves this week: fill up on the low points of your local city price cycle (typically Monday or Tuesday in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and Wednesday in Adelaide), use a fuel-finder app such as MotorMouth or the ACCC-supported state government sites to compare within a 10km radius, and stack a 4-cents-per-litre supermarket rewards discount where you can (IBTimes Australia consumer tips, 13 July 2026).

Also worth pencilling in: the Reserve Bank’s card-surcharge changes take effect on 1 October 2026, when Visa, MasterCard and eftpos can introduce “no surcharge” rules that stop merchants passing card fees on to customers. The average Australian pays between 1.5 and 2 per cent in card surcharges on tap-and-go purchases today. For a household spending $2,000 a month on cards, that is roughly $30 to $40 a month back in the family budget from October onward. The excessive-pricing prohibition, which applies only to businesses with more than $30 billion in annual turnover (Coles and Woolworths), also went live on 1 July, reinforcing the “Down Down” and “Prices Dropped” enforcement pipeline the Federal Court kicked off last week.

Five Fresh Australian Stores, Audited at Dawn

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today, none carried over from the last three days, all headline discounts verified from the live sale pages this morning.

1Today’s Top
DiscountSportsgirlWomen's FashionUp to 90 per cent off Sportsgirl: dresses, knits, denim, workwear and Y2K-revival pieces from the Australian-owned womenswear label headquartered in Melbourne, with free returns and Afterpay across every state.90%OFF2General PantsYouth Fashion50 per cent off General Pants Co: denim, streetwear, sneakers and Australian and imported labels from the youth-fashion retailer with stores in every capital and same-day dispatch on weekdays.50%OFF3Merchant 1948Men's Wear50 per cent off Merchant 1948: leather boots, loafers, sneakers and accessories from the family-run New Zealand and Australian footwear specialist trading through Australian stores and online with local returns.50%OFF4SUNNYLiFEOutdoor & CampingUp to 50 per cent off SUNNYLiFE: beach towels, coolers, inflatables, picnic gear and homewares from the Australian-owned Sydney-based outdoor and lifestyle brand, ready for the first warm-weekend runout.50%OFF5Scooter HutSkate & WheelsUp to 50 per cent off Scooter Hut: scooters, helmets, parts and skate gear from the Australian-owned scooter specialist with warehouses in Queensland and New South Wales and Zip and Afterpay at checkout.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, a handful of other Australian-owned retailers are running strong cuts through the middle of the second full trading week of the new financial year. Sheike (today’s Top 6 ticker pick) has up to 50 per cent off dresses, event pieces and workwear from the Australian-owned womenswear label, with same-day dispatch from Sydney and free returns on full-price items. Rockwear is running up to 50 per cent off Australian-designed activewear, gym leggings and sports bras from the Melbourne-based label. Koala has clearance pricing on mattresses, sofas and bedroom furniture from the Australian-owned certified B Corp with 120-night trials. Appliances Online has ongoing EOFY runout on fridges, washers and cooking with next-day delivery to most metro postcodes. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, all backed by the Australian Consumer Law.

Our Take

The Telstra outage matters not because a mobile network went down for 12 hours (they do, occasionally, and always will), but because of what happened next. A CEO cut short an overseas holiday to publicly apologise, a Senate inquiry was called within 72 hours, a $30 million penalty ceiling is now sitting on the desk of a regulator with a 45-day deadline, and Telstra’s Remuneration Committee has been directed to reconsider executive bonuses. That is what a mature consumer-protection regime looks like when it works. And the ACCC’s Digital Platform Services Inquiry closing at 72 per cent of Australians reporting unfair online-shopping practices means the same regime is being pointed squarely at online retail next. If you are running a subscription trial, a “free shipping” flow that surprises the customer with a fee at checkout, or a “was” price that has never actually been on the shelf, the Federal Court, the ACCC and now Parliament have all told you where they stand.

That is exactly why It’s On Sale exists. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily against the store’s own price history. No trial traps, no hidden fees, no offshore marketplaces dressed up as a local brand. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. The AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “winter womens dresses under 100” or “kids scooters half price”). None of it is Temu, Shein, AliExpress, Wish or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand. Browse Today’s Sales on the Wednesday of the second full week of the new financial year, and make your money go further with Australian retailers who stand behind the ticket.

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

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Tuesday morning and the subscription-trap era is officially closing in Australia. The Federal Court has ordered US-based JustAnswer to pay $10 million in penalties for signing Australians into hidden $45 to $75 monthly subscriptions while advertising a “fully refundable” AU$2 trial, and for falsely presenting itself as affiliated with the Fair Work Ombudsman. The penalty landed just days after Parliament passed the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026 on 2 July, which introduces an explicit prohibition on subscription traps, drip pricing and 18 other categories of unfair conduct, taking effect from 1 July 2027 with penalties of up to $100 million per breach. Elsewhere Macquarie has downgraded Woolworths to Underperform on a $37 price target, the Consumer Data Right expands to non-bank home-loan lenders from today, and consumer confidence has slipped again post-EOFY. Five fresh Australian stores today, five categories, none carried over from the last three days.

JustAnswer Fined $10 Million as Parliament Bans Subscription Traps

The Federal Court has ordered JustAnswer LLC to pay $10 million in penalties for misleading Australian consumers, refund affected customers, publish a corrective notice on its website, pay the ACCC’s costs and develop a consumer-law compliance program (David Braue, Information Age, 8 July 2026). The ACCC-led investigation began in September 2024 and covers conduct between November 2022 and August 2025, during which JustAnswer’s website chatbot invited Australians to “join JustAnswer for only AU$2 (fully refundable)” while signing them up to an ongoing subscription costing between $45 and $75 per month. A separate strand of the case covered June 2022 to February 2024, when the platform claimed to be affiliated with the Fair Work Ombudsman and enticed workers looking for pay and entitlement help to sign up on that basis. JustAnswer’s estimated global revenue is around $273 million, and the $10 million penalty represents almost 4 per cent of that annual figure.

ACCC Commissioner Luke Woodward described the conduct as a “serious breach” of the Australian Consumer Law, saying JustAnswer misled consumers “into signing up to a subscription trap by not giving the necessary up-front information about ongoing subscription fees.” The penalty is deliberately timed to reinforce Parliament’s passage of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026, which cleared both Houses on 2 July and takes effect from 1 July 2027 after a 12-month transition (Bird & Bird analysis, 10 July 2026). The bill introduces three headline reforms: a broad prohibition on unfair trading practices (new section 28B of the Australian Consumer Law), a targeted prohibition on drip pricing (new section 48A), and a full subscription-contracts framework (new sections 48B to 48H) requiring “comprehensible, audible, unambiguous” disclosure of ongoing fees and one-click cancellation.

Penalties under the new regime are steep by design. Corporations can be fined up to $100 million per breach, three times the value of any benefit obtained, or 30 per cent of adjusted turnover during the breach period, whichever is greater; individuals can be fined up to $2.5 million (HWLE Lawyers, 10 July 2026). Assistant Minister for Productivity Dr Andrew Leigh, introducing the bill, said Australians “know exactly what these reforms are about because they have lived it,” calling out the experience of spending “half a day trying to exit a subscription that took 30 seconds to sign up.” The JustAnswer ruling is the first major enforcement action under existing ACL sections 18 and 29 to be handed down since Parliament passed the new regime, and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer note that “any industry where the ACCC has already raised concerns about consumers being misled should consider themselves in the spotlight.”

How To Spot And Escape A Subscription Trap Right Now

The new law is not live until 1 July 2027, but the ACCC has been enforcing subscription-trap conduct under existing consumer law for years, and the practical read for Australian shoppers is that the tools to fight back are already available. The pattern is consistent: a headline offer of a low-price trial, a chatbot or checkout flow that collects card details without a clear ongoing-fee disclosure, and a monthly charge that continues silently until the customer takes action. In addition to JustAnswer, the ACCC has recently secured payments from eDreams ($59,400 for a fake “free trial” that automatically converted to a paid subscription) and HSK United Pty Ltd ($79,200 for misleading pricing across the Pain Free Aussies and Modern Aussies websites), signalling that the enforcement pipeline is running well ahead of the July 2027 start date.

Three practical steps for shoppers this week. First, run a bank-statement audit for the last six months looking for repeating charges under $80 you cannot immediately explain: streaming platforms, dating apps, dashcam software, VPNs, “premium” news tiers, meal-kit trials, gym add-ons. Second, cancel any subscription you did not knowingly agree to and, if the merchant refuses, contact your card issuer for a chargeback under Visa or Mastercard rules (both allow disputes for services not authorised or materially misrepresented). Third, if you believe the sign-up flow was misleading, lodge a formal complaint with the ACCC through the Australian Consumer Law consumer portal. The JustAnswer refund program is a live example of what happens when enough people make that complaint at once, and the same pathway is available for every subscription running the same trap in Australia today.

Macquarie Downgrades Woolworths; Open Banking Expands To Non-Bank Home Loans

Macquarie moved Woolworths from Neutral to Underperform yesterday morning with a new price target of AU$37 (MT Newswires via MarketScreener, 13 July 2026). The downgrade lands the day after the Federal Court found Coles misled shoppers with 13 of 14 sample “Down Down” tickets and set a 12-week benchmark for a genuine “Was” price. The FactSet average across sell-side analysts is now Hold at $35.93. Woolworths’ companion “Prices Dropped” case is still awaiting Federal Court judgment, and the analyst view is straightforward: a similar ruling would open Woolworths to a comparable penalty exposure, and the same 12-week benchmark would apply to every “Prices Dropped” red ticket already in-store. For household shoppers, the practical read is unchanged from yesterday. Treat every “Prices Dropped” ticket the way the Court now treats “Down Down,” and only accept the discount as real if the “Was” price was genuinely on the shelf for around three months.

Also live from today, the Consumer Data Right expands to non-bank home-loan lenders, with Athena, Pepper Money, Firstmac, Resimac, Liberty and La Trobe among the initial group required to share product data via the Consumer Data Right regime. Product data (interest rates, fees, LVR criteria) starts flowing today, with consumer data sharing (individual account data) rolled out in stages from 9 November 2026. ACCC Commissioner Dr Ian Oppermann said the expansion gives consumers access to information about “the broadest possible range of financial products.” The practical impact is that home-loan comparison and switching tools like Athena’s Home Loan Refresh and Compare the Market’s API should get materially sharper this quarter. For households on a variable-rate mortgage that has not been reviewed in the last 12 months, this is the cleanest structural moment of the year to switch. A 0.4 percentage-point cut on a $600,000 mortgage is roughly $150 per month.

Consumer Confidence Slips Again; Tuesday Deals Calendar

The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index fell 1.2 points to 74.7 in the first week of July, 13.9 points below a year ago but 3.2 points above the 2026 weekly average of 71.5 (Ragtrader, 7 July 2026). Australians reporting they are “worse off” financially than a year ago outnumbered those who were “better off” by 51 per cent to 15 per cent. Only 19 per cent think now is a good time to buy major household items (42 per cent say it is a bad time). ANZ economist Sophia Angala noted household consumption growth is now easing from 2.5 per cent through 2025 to 1.1 per cent for 2026. Retail read: shoppers are still spending, but the threshold for what counts as a genuine deal has moved. The five stores below are exactly that, verified from the live sale pages at dawn this morning.

Two housekeeping reminders. From 1 July 2026, new cash-acceptance rules require some fuel and grocery retailers to accept cash payments up to $500 during trading hours between 7am and 9pm. And the Visa, MasterCard and EFTPOS card-surcharge ban remains locked in for October 2026, which will remove the surcharge line item from most in-store and online checkouts nationally. Both are consumer-facing structural changes worth pencilling in before the spring shopping cycle picks up.

Five Fresh Australian Stores, Audited at Dawn

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today, none carried over from the last three days, all headline discounts verified from the live sale pages this morning.

1Today’s Top
DiscountLounge LoversHomewares50 per cent off Lounge Lovers: sofas, dining and bedroom pieces from the Australian-owned furniture and homewares specialist with a Sydney showroom, click-and-collect and delivery across every state.50%OFF2Nine WestFashion Accessories50 per cent off Nine West: boots, heels, flats and handbags from the American footwear house sold through Australian-owned retail partners with local sizing, free returns and Afterpay.50%OFF3OPSMHealth & BeautyUp to 50 per cent off OPSM frames as part of the winter eyewear sale, with Medicare and private-health optical claiming and Australia-wide store network at checkout.50%OFF4PortmansWomen's Wear50 per cent off Portmans: workwear, event dressing, denim and knits from the Australian-owned womenswear label with same-day dispatch on weekdays and free returns on full-price items.50%OFF5TypoBooks & Gifts50 per cent off Typo: books, stationery, homewares, gifts and desk accessories from the Cotton On Group brand headquartered in Geelong, with Cotton On Perks stacking on sale prices.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, a handful of other Australian-owned retailers are running strong cuts through the Tuesday of the second full trading week of the new financial year. Telstra (today’s Top 6 ticker pick) has up to 40 per cent off selected phones, accessories and connected devices, with in-store pickup at more than 300 Australian locations. Veronika Maine is running up to 40 per cent off workwear and event dressing from the Australian-owned label. Sussan has 50 per cent off knits, denim and jackets, backed by the retailer’s Australian breast-cancer research contributions. UGG has up to 30 per cent off Australian-made sheepskin boots and slippers from the Sydney manufacturer. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, all backed by the Australian Consumer Law.

Our Take

The JustAnswer ruling matters because it reframes what an ordinary Australian shopper is entitled to expect from a “free trial.” For close to two decades, subscription businesses have been able to hide ongoing fees behind bright-coloured trial buttons, chatbot flows and multi-step cancellation gauntlets, and the enforcement bar was set at the level of provable individual harm. The Court and Parliament have now moved on both fronts. The Court has said $10 million is what a three-year subscription trap looks like on the current book. Parliament has said a $100 million ceiling and a positive obligation to disclose is what the next chapter looks like from July 2027. Every subscription business currently operating in Australia has 12 months to fix its checkout flow, and every Australian household has 12 months to audit the recurring charges already running against their card.

That is exactly why It’s On Sale exists. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily against the store’s own price history. No trial traps, no hidden fees, no offshore marketplaces dressed up as a local brand. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. The AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “winter homewares under 100” or “womens work dresses”). None of it is Temu, Shein, AliExpress, Wish or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand. Browse Today’s Sales on the Tuesday of the second full week of the new financial year, and make your money go further with Australian retailers who stand behind the ticket.

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

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Monday morning and the Australian retail story has changed shape. The Federal Court has found that Coles Supermarkets misled shoppers in 13 of the 14 sample “Down Down” tickets tested by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, ruling the discounts illusory under sections 18 and 29 of the Australian Consumer Law. Justice Michael O’Bryan set a 12-week benchmark for a genuine “Was” price, drawing on Coles’ own internal pricing guardrails. Woolworths’ companion case is still to be decided, and Coles has said it is “reviewing the judgment,” with penalties potentially running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Also in the frame: ASIC has now put a dollar figure on the four-year retail insolvency wave, and NBN wholesale prices lifted from 1 July, meaning most retail internet bills will move up this month. Five fresh Australian stores today, five categories, none carried over from the last three days.

Court Rules Coles Misled Shoppers Over “Down Down” Discount Claims

The Federal Court of Australia has handed down its decision in Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd [2026] FCA 598, finding that Coles made false or misleading representations in 13 of the 14 sample “Down Down” tickets considered in the liability hearing (ACCC media release, 12 July 2026). The case, brought by the ACCC in 2024, covered 245 products where Coles temporarily increased prices by at least 15 per cent between February 2022 and May 2023, then placed them on “Down Down” promotions at prices equal to or higher than the shelf price before the temporary rise.

Justice Michael O’Bryan accepted that reasonable minds may differ on what counts as a “reasonable period” for a “Was” reference price, but concluded that 12 weeks is the appropriate benchmark for a genuine established price, drawing directly on Coles’ own internal pricing guardrails which, until March 2022, required a minimum 12-week price establishment period (Justin Malbon, Hall & Wilcox, 11 July 2026). In the sample, some products had only been sold at the “Was” price for as little as seven days before the “Down Down” discount was applied, and around four weeks in other cases. The single allegation that failed involved a Nature’s Gift dog food ticket, which did not display a specific “Was” price and therefore conveyed only a more general message that the price was promotional.

“We welcome the Court’s finding that Coles breached the Australian Consumer Law,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said in the statement released with the judgment. “The ACCC brought this case in the public interest because we considered that Coles’ pricing practices within its ‘Down Down’ program made it harder for customers to identify genuine value for money while shopping for household essentials.” Coles has said it is “reviewing the judgment” (SME Business Daily Media, 12 July 2026) and an appeal is still possible. The Court has given Coles and the ACCC until 29 May to agree on penalties and other orders, including a possible donation to Foodbank, before the matter returns for a penalty hearing. The maximum penalty under the Australian Consumer Law is $50 million per breach, three times the reasonably attributable benefit, or 30 per cent of adjusted turnover during the breach period, whichever is greater, and a separate class action brought by consumers against Coles will be dealt with alongside the penalty phase.

How To Read a “Down Down” or “Prices Dropped” Ticket From Now On

The practical read for Australian shoppers is the 12-week rule. When a supermarket “Down Down” ticket shows a “Was” price and a lower current price, the discount can only be treated as a genuine saving if the “Was” price was actually on the shelf for a reasonable period, and the Court has now set the benchmark at approximately 12 weeks. If the “Was” price appeared briefly (a week, a month) before the reduction was announced, the discount is likely engineered. The ACCC’s pricing guidance confirms that businesses must not make false or misleading claims about prices, including the reason for changes, and the Court’s finding makes that principle enforceable against ticket-level campaigns like “Down Down” and Woolworths’ “Prices Dropped.”

The consumer tools worth using are already in shoppers’ hands. Both Coles and Woolworths display in-app price histories on individual product pages, and independent trackers like OzBargain and Grocery Watch keep long records of shelf pricing that shoppers can cross-check. From 1 July 2026, new Food and Grocery Code rules also ban very large retailers (currently only Coles and Woolworths, both with more than $30 billion in annual Australian turnover) from engaging in excessive pricing, defined as pricing significantly above the cost of supply plus a reasonable margin (ACCC Food and Grocery Code). Importantly, under section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law, a finding of misleading conduct does not require proof that individual consumers suffered actual harm: it is enough that ordinary consumers were likely to form an incorrect impression. That lowers the bar for future enforcement.

ASIC Puts $3.66 Billion Figure On Retail’s Four-Year Insolvency Toll

ASIC Report 836, released this month, has for the first time attached a dollar figure to the wave of Australian retail administrations since 2021. Between 2021 and 2025, 238 retail voluntary administrations were recorded nationally, with total liabilities of $3.66 billion and median liabilities of $2.10 million per appointment (Aleks Cvetkovic, Ragtrader, 7 July 2026). Across the whole VA universe, 44 per cent of appointments resulted in an approved deed of company arrangement and 50 per cent ended in liquidation, with the DOCAs paying unsecured creditors an average of 21.3 cents in the dollar (median 11.5 cents). That figure is the practical read on what a store gift card is likely to be worth if the retailer holding it enters administration and then converts to a DOCA.

The report reinforces the pattern already visible in the Betts, Barbeques Galore, Lincraft, Glue Store and ZEN Energy Retail administrations tracked through June and early July. The lesson for Australian households remains the same. If you hold a gift card, store credit, layby balance or lifetime warranty against a public brand that is under visible commercial stress, treat the credit like cash that expires. Spend it inside the trading window, not later. Under the Corporations Act, gift cards and store credits held against a company in voluntary administration typically rank as unsecured claims, and ASIC’s numbers now confirm those claims recover closer to 20 cents in the dollar than to 100. The full ASIC Report 836 is publicly available on the ASIC insolvency statistics page.

NBN Wholesale Prices Rise From 1 July, Retail Bills To Follow

NBN Co adjusted its wholesale prices across all speed tiers on 1 July 2026, and the retail price rises are landing in customer inboxes across July (Steven Nixon, Canstar, 9 July 2026). The largest wholesale rise is on Home Hyperfast (NBN 1000/50) at $4.04 per month, followed by Home Superfast (NBN 250/25) at $3.19, Home Standard (NBN 50/20) at $2.34, and Home Fast (NBN 100/20) at $2.32. The Home Basic 12/1 wholesale price is the only one moving the other way, dropping one cent. Retail internet providers typically pass on more than the wholesale increase, so shoppers on Telstra, Optus and TPG plans should expect increases of between $3 and $6 per month across Home Standard and above.

The consumer move is not to accept the letter. When the notice arrives, use it as a switching trigger. On Home Fast (NBN 100/20) plans in July, Belong, Superloop, Aussie Broadband, Kogan Internet and Dodo consistently undercut the majors by $10 to $20 per month for equivalent speed. Aussie Broadband and Superloop in particular publish real-world CVC (capacity) figures, meaning the advertised speed is closer to the delivered speed than at the discount providers. If you have been on the same NBN plan for more than 12 months, the July rise is the cleanest moment of the year to switch. And a housekeeping note for October shoppers: the Visa, MasterCard and EFTPOS card-surcharge ban is still locked in for October 2026, which will remove the surcharge line item from most in-store and online checkouts nationally.

Five Fresh Australian Stores, Audited at Dawn

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today, none carried over from the last three days, all headline discounts verified from the live sale pages this morning.

1Today’s Top
DiscountCotton OnCasual FashionUp to 50 per cent off Cotton On sale: winter basics, denim, sweats, activewear and kids from the Geelong-headquartered Australian retailer, with Cotton On Perks and free delivery over $55.50%OFF2GlassonsWomen's Wear50 per cent off across Glassons: knits, denim, jackets and workwear from the Australian-owned womenswear label with local warehousing, click-and-collect and free returns.50%OFF3HallensteinsMen's WearUp to 50 per cent off Hallenstein Brothers: outerwear, knits, chinos and basics from the New Zealand and Australia menswear specialist, backed by local sizing and free returns.50%OFF4Healthy LifeHealth & BeautyUp to 50 per cent off Healthy Life: Australian-owned online health and pharmacy specialist covering vitamins, skincare, personal care and Australian-made supplements, with free shipping over $79.50%OFF5HouseHomewares50 per cent off House: kitchen, cookware, glassware and homewares from the Australian-owned specialist chain, plus HouseVIP rewards and Australia-wide delivery.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, a handful of other Australian-owned retailers are running strong cuts through the Monday of the second full trading week of the new financial year. Macpac (today’s Top 6 ticker pick) has up to 50 per cent off winter jackets, thermals, packs and hiking layers from the New Zealand and Australia outdoor specialist. Kathmandu is running up to 50 per cent off winter jackets and packs. OPSM has up to 50 per cent off frames as part of the winter eyewear sale, with Medicare and health-fund claiming still available at checkout. Lounge Lovers has 50 per cent off across selected sofas and dining, with free Australian delivery on selected metros. Portmans is running up to 50 per cent off workwear and event dressing. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, all backed by Australian Consumer Law.

Our Take

The “Down Down” ruling matters because it changes what an ordinary Australian shopper is entitled to expect from a headline discount claim. For years, Coles and Woolworths trained the country to look for red tickets and to assume the “Was” price represented a stable, established shelf price. The Court has now said that assumption is legitimate, and that a “Was” price that has been on the shelf for a week, or a month, or even a quarter, is not a fair reference point. The 12-week benchmark is not an ACCC target; it is now a judicial standard. The lesson for shoppers is not that supermarket specials are worthless. It is that a supermarket discount is only meaningful when the “Was” price is genuinely established, and that is the read every red ticket should now get.

That is exactly why It’s On Sale exists. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily against the store’s own price history. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. The AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “winter jackets under 100” or “womens work dresses”). None of it is Temu, Shein, AliExpress, Wish or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand. Browse Today’s Sales on the Monday of the second full week of the new financial year, and make your money go further with Australian retailers who stand behind the ticket.

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

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Sunday morning and the Australian shopping story is one of exits, not launches. Betts, the 134-year-old West Australian footwear chain that once ran nearly 220 stores nationwide, entered voluntary administration on 24 June and its administrators from Pitcher Partners have now confirmed 20 of the remaining 35 stores will close over the next four to eight weeks. Betts is not alone. Barbeques Galore closed its 62 company-owned stores nationally in early July (27 franchise sites remain trading under transitional arrangements), Lincraft is progressing through administration across its 67-store network, and Glue Store shuttered its Australian locations in late June. On the same page of the news, Assistant Minister for Competition Andrew Leigh has confirmed Temu has been signed on to the Australian Product Safety Pledge, even though the platform continues to publicly deny legal liability for unsafe products sold on it. Five fresh Australian stores today, five categories, none carried over from the last two days.

Betts Enters Administration, 20 of 35 Stores To Close

Lindsay Bainbridge and Andrew Yeo of Pitcher Partners were appointed voluntary administrators of Betts Pty Ltd and eight related entities on 24 June 2026, citing declining consumer sentiment, rising operating and transport costs and falling foot traffic at underperforming shopping centres (Dina Kovacevic, Insolvency Insider Australia, 5 July 2026). The administrators plan to close 20 of the group’s 35 stores, leaving 15 locations trading alongside its e-commerce operation. Affected stores are expected to continue operating for approximately four to eight weeks while stock is sold, with some outlets scheduled to close sooner.

The closures fall unevenly across the country: seven stores will close in Western Australia, four each in New South Wales and Victoria, three in South Australia, and one each in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Major stores in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth are expected to remain. Betts traces its origins to a Perth bootmaker’s shop established in 1892 and has stayed in the same family for five generations. At its peak the group operated close to 220 stores; the brand was relaunched in October 2025 as part of an effort to reposition the business. For Australian shoppers the practical read is straightforward. If you have a Betts gift card, store credit or an outstanding return, the four-to-eight-week window at closing stores is when to use it. The administrators say they will seek to transfer some affected workers into stores that remain open, and their review will decide whether the streamlined business is recapitalised, sold or continued through a deed of company arrangement.

The Winter Retail Killing Season, and What Gift Cards Are Still Worth

Betts is the newest name on a run of Australian retail administrations that has picked up sharply through the June to July window (The Nightly, 6 July 2026). Barbeques Galore closed its 62 company-owned stores nationally in early July, though 27 franchise-operated stores across regional NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia continue trading under transitional arrangements (OzBargain community record, 5 July 2026). Lincraft is working through administration across its 67-store fabric and craft network. Glue Store shuttered its Australian locations in late June. Business insolvencies across the country are tracking at close to double pre-pandemic levels, retail closure rates sit at 5.7 per cent, and food and beverage closure rates are running higher again at 9.3 per cent (Aus News Lanka, 7 July 2026).

The consumer-facing question is what to do with the gift cards, store credits, layby balances and lifetime warranties held against these names. Under the Corporations Act, gift cards and store credits held against a company in voluntary administration typically rank as unsecured claims, which means they can lose most or all of their value if the business is wound up. The practical guidance: spend outstanding Betts, Barbeques Galore, Lincraft and Glue Store credits inside the current trading window, not later. If a retailer’s brand is publicly under stress, treat the credit like cash that expires. Closing-store discounts are a legitimate opportunity if the item is one you were already planning to buy, but always cross-check the same product against an Australian competitor before committing, and never send a bank transfer for an in-store purchase.

Temu Joins Australian Product Safety Pledge, Still Denies Liability

Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh confirmed this week that Temu has been signed on to the Australian Product Safety Pledge, alongside a $6.6 million federal budget line for product-safety reforms (ABC News, 6 July 2026). The pledge commits online marketplaces to cooperate with the ACCC on product recalls, remove unsafe listings faster and share data on repeat-offender sellers. The catch is that Temu, unlike a domestic retailer, continues to publicly deny legal liability for unsafe products sold on the platform, treating itself as an intermediary between overseas sellers and Australian buyers. The family of a Queensland child burnt by a product bought on Temu told the ABC they were furious that the platform had been welcomed into the pledge without accepting responsibility for injuries already caused.

For Australian households the read is not that Temu is now safe. It is that Australian shoppers still carry the full consumer risk when the seller is offshore, the postage is from China, and the platform’s stated position is that it does not accept liability. The Australian Consumer Law applies fully and simply against an Australian-owned or locally fulfilled retailer: you can demand a refund, repair or replacement for a product that is unsafe, not as described, or not fit for purpose, and the retailer cannot contract out of that. The same protection is much harder to enforce against an overseas platform that denies it is the seller. This is why It’s On Sale lists Australian-owned or Australian-fulfilled retailers only and refuses Temu, Shein, AliExpress and Wish.

The Sunday Calendar: Half-Price Catalogue Closing, Myer Stocktake, Winter Bedding Cycle

The Coles and Woolworths half-price catalogue for the week of 8 to 14 July closes on Monday night. Between the two chains, close to 196 grocery items are running at 50 per cent off or better in the current cycle (97 Coles, 99 Woolworths), and the OzBargain community has been tracking the sharpest picks daily (OzBargain groceries feed). Sunday morning is the last practical window to plan the shop against the catalogue before it rotates. Meanwhile Myer’s Stocktake Sale continues into its closing week and the Myer Toy Sale runs to Sunday 19 July, both catalogue-priced and both worth a Myer One redemption if you have points sitting (Getprice, July 2026).

The winter bedding cycle is also worth a look this weekend. Original Mattress Factory (Australian-made pocket-spring beds direct from the factory), Pillow Talk (Australian-owned bedding specialist) and Big Bedding are running staged winter markdowns before the August tax refund window drives the next demand spike. If you were already planning a mattress or duvet replacement, the discount depth today is meaningfully better than late August will be. And a housekeeping note for buyers: the Visa, MasterCard and EFTPOS card-surcharge ban is still locked in for October 2026 (Andrew Leigh transcript, 2 July 2026), meaning the cost of a purchase you make in-store or online in the last three months of 2026 will fall automatically by the surcharge amount currently added at checkout.

Five Fresh Australian Stores, Audited at Dawn

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today, none carried over from Friday or Saturday, all headline discounts verified from the live sale pages this morning.

1Today’s Top
DiscountDecjubaWomen's WearUp to 70 per cent off Decjuba’s sale: dresses, denim, knits, coats and workwear from the Australian-designed womenswear label with local warehousing, free returns and Afterpay.70%OFF2DuskHomewares & CandlesUp to 60 per cent off Dusk’s clearance: candles, diffusers, home fragrance, bath and gifting from the Australian-owned homewares specialist since 2000, stocked across more than 130 stores nationally.60%OFF3MyerDepartment StoresUp to 60 per cent off across Myer’s Stocktake Sale and winter clearance: fashion, homewares, beauty and toys from Australia’s largest department store, with Myer One rewards and free returns.60%OFF4Original Mattress FactoryBeddingUp to 60 per cent off Original Mattress Factory: Australian-made pocket-spring and hybrid mattresses direct from the factory, with free Australia-wide delivery and a 10-year warranty.60%OFF5Robert GordonHomewaresUp to 60 per cent off Robert Gordon: Australian-designed and Victorian-made ceramics, dinnerware, mugs and homewares from the family-owned pottery in Pakenham, in production since 1998.60%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, a handful of other Australian-owned retailers are running strong cuts through the weekend. Australian Leather (today’s Top 6 ticker pick) has up to 50 per cent off Australian sheepskin Ugg-style boots, moccasins and slippers, made in the Thornleigh, NSW factory. House is running up to 50 per cent off kitchen, cookware and homewares from the Australian-owned specialist. Kathmandu has up to 50 per cent off winter jackets, thermals and packs from the New Zealand and Australia outdoor specialist. Hallensteins has up to 50 per cent off basics and outerwear across menswear. Glassons is running 50 per cent off across womenswear including knits, denim and jackets. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, all backed by Australian Consumer Law.

Our Take

Zoom out from the day and the Australian retail landscape looks like a strong argument for buying from local sellers whose consumer-law exposure is real. Betts, Barbeques Galore, Lincraft and Glue Store are all closing or shrinking their store networks under the same pressure: high transport costs, weaker shopping-centre foot traffic, and a customer base that has quietly moved a big share of its spending online. That is not going to reverse, and it means gift cards and store credits held against a public brand-under-stress should be treated like cash that expires. The winning move for Australian shoppers is to spend outstanding credits inside the trading window, cross-check items against an independent competitor, and back the Australian-owned and locally fulfilled operators that are still investing in the country.

That is exactly why It’s On Sale exists. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. The AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “womens dresses under 80” or “ugg boots clearance”). None of it is Temu, Shein, AliExpress, Wish or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand. Browse Today’s Sales on the Sunday of the second week of the new financial year, and make your money go further with Australian retailers who stand behind their products.

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

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Saturday morning and the retail news for Australian shoppers is being written by the regulator. The ACCC has blocked Coles from acquiring a vacant retail site in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, the first time any proposed retail acquisition has been refused under the new mandatory merger regime that took effect on 1 January. On the same page of the calendar, the world-first supermarket excessive-pricing prohibition kicked in on 1 July, giving the regulator direct legal power to challenge Coles and Woolworths shelf prices that sit “significantly excessive” above supply cost plus a reasonable margin. British group Frasers has launched a full takeover bid for Accent Group, the country’s largest footwear retailer, and the Accent board has told shareholders to reject it. Five fresh Australian stores today, all Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, none carried over from the last two days.

ACCC Blocks Coles Kalgoorlie Site Acquisition

The ACCC has formally opposed Coles Group’s proposed acquisition of a leasehold interest for a vacant 2,800 square metre site in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia, where the supermarket chain had planned to build a new full-line supermarket and Liquorland. It is the first proposed retail acquisition refused under the new mandatory merger regime that took effect on 1 January 2026 (Keira Joyce, Food & Drink Business, 7 July 2026). The regulator ruled that Coles building on the site would substantially lessen competition in Kalgoorlie by driving an effective independent full-line competitor out of the market, and that new entry would not be timely or sufficient to offset the loss.

ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh said the decision came down to the role independent supermarkets play in regional Australia: “Independent supermarkets are an important competitive constraint on the major supermarket chains. They provide consumers with meaningful choice, competition on service, quality and range, and competition on price for some products” (Cat Fredenburgh, Lawyerly, 1 July 2026). For regional Australian households, the practical read is direct. The regulator is now willing to say no to a proposed Coles or Woolworths footprint expansion on competition grounds alone, and it is prepared to weigh the exit risk of the local independent as a real cost to shoppers. Coles can seek Tribunal review; competition lawyers are watching this file closely because it is the template for every regional acquisition that follows.

World-First Supermarket Excessive-Pricing Law Now in Force

On 1 July 2026 Australia became the first country in the world to explicitly prohibit “excessive pricing” by named supermarket retailers under the Food and Grocery Code. Coles and Woolworths (the only chains captured by the 30 billion dollar annual revenue threshold) are now barred from setting a shelf price that is “significantly excessive” compared with the supply cost of the product plus a reasonable margin (Ground News, 7 July 2026). Penalties top out at 10 million dollars per breach, three times the benefit obtained, or 10 per cent of the retailer’s annual Australian turnover, whichever is greater.

ACCC Acting Chair Catriona Lowe has said the regulator will focus early enforcement on the categories where excessive pricing hits Australian households hardest (staples, produce, packaged basics) and will publish its analysis to lift deterrence across the sector (The Times Australia, 5 July 2026). For weekly shoppers the practical tool is simple. If a product’s shelf price at Coles or Woolworths looks out of step with the same product at an independent grocer or with the wholesale price the same brand quotes on its website, that is now the kind of price gap the regulator has legal power to challenge, and the ACCC accepts consumer reports directly. Keep the receipt, snap the shelf tag, note the date, and lodge it.

Frasers Group Launches Takeover Bid for Accent Group

British listed retailer Frasers Group (the Mike Ashley vehicle behind Sports Direct, House of Fraser and a growing global stable) has launched a full takeover bid for Accent Group, Australia’s largest footwear retailer and the operator of Platypus, Athlete’s Foot, Skechers Australia, Hype DC and Stylerunner (Fibre2Fashion, 4 July 2026). The offer opened on 30 June and closes 30 July. Accent’s board has recommended shareholders reject the bid as inadequate, and Frasers has applied to the Australian Takeovers Panel to intervene against the board’s response.

For Australian shoppers the interesting question is what happens to sizing, stock and warranties across roughly 900 Accent Group storefronts if Frasers wins. Frasers is a low-margin, big-volume operator with a track record of stripping brand overheads and reworking store networks. Whatever the outcome, the current sale mechanics at Platypus, Athlete’s Foot and Skechers Australia continue as normal through July, and gift cards remain honoured. If you have store credit, use it in the current window rather than sitting on it.

WA Footwear Chain, Retail Administrations, and What is Still Rolling

A 134-year-old Western Australian footwear chain is closing seven of its eleven stores across the state, the latest name in a run of long-standing Australian retail closures that has picked up pace through the June to July window (The West Australian retail feed). Kathmandu’s parent has been restructuring capital, a well-known Australian activewear label has moved into voluntary administration this quarter, and Apple has quietly lifted Australian sticker prices on iPad and MacBook lines this month. The read for shoppers is not to panic-buy at closing stores, but to be careful with gift-card balances if a brand is publicly under stress, use closing-store discounts on things you were already planning to buy, and check whether the item is stocked cheaper by an Australian competitor before committing.

On the calendar itself, Myer’s Stocktake Sale is in its closing week and the Myer Toy Sale runs to Sunday 19 July, both catalogue-priced and both worth a Myer One redemption if you have points sitting (Getprice, July 2026). Woolworths kicks off a Commonwealth Games collectible coin promotion in partnership with the Royal Australian Mint on Tuesday 15 July, with three limited-edition coins available in-store for qualifying spend (Retail World, July 2026). The RBA does not sit again until Tuesday 11 August, so the cash rate stays at 4.10 per cent for the rest of July (Your Mortgage, 8 July 2026). And the card-surcharge ban on Visa, MasterCard and EFTPOS transactions remains locked in for October 2026 (Andrew Leigh transcript, 2 July 2026), removing another line-item cost from most in-store and online checkouts.

Five Fresh Australian Stores, Audited at Dawn

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today, none carried over from Thursday or Friday, all headline discounts verified from the live sale pages.

1Today’s Top
DiscountPrincess PollyWomen's WearUp to 80 per cent off Princess Polly’s sale: dresses, denim, tops, going-out wear and knits from the Australian-founded womenswear label with local Sydney warehousing, free returns and Afterpay.80%OFF2ShowpoFashion AccessUp to 80 per cent off Showpo’s Sale: dresses, occasion wear, tops, denim and accessories from the Australian-founded fast-turn womenswear label with Sydney warehousing and free Australian shipping over 50 dollars.80%OFF3UGG ExpressUgg BootsUp to 80 per cent off UGG Express: classic sheepskin boots, slippers and moccasins from the Australian sheepskin specialist, Australian warehoused with local dispatch and free returns on unworn stock.80%OFF4Eckersleys Art & CraftArt SuppliesUp to 70 per cent off Eckersleys Art and Craft: paints, canvas, brushes, journals, easels and craft supplies from the Australian art materials specialist since 1938, with 30-plus stores nationally.70%OFF5GrahamsJewelleryUp to 70 per cent off Grahams Jewellers: engagement rings, gold and silver chains, diamond studs, watches and gift jewellery from the Australian family-owned jeweller since 1959, with lifetime service and Australian workshops.70%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, a handful of other Australian-owned retailers are running strong cuts through the weekend. Academy Brand (today’s Top 6 ticker pick) has up to 60 per cent off Australian-designed menswear including denim, tees, knitwear and outerwear. Forever New is running up to 60 per cent off Australian-founded womenswear across dresses, workwear, going-out and knits. The Hut has up to 60 per cent off homewares and lifestyle from the Australian-owned specialty retailer. David Jones is running its winter clearance across fashion, homewares and beauty with mid-season markdowns. Decjuba is up to 60 per cent off Australian-designed womenswear across dresses, denim and knits. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, all backed by Australian Consumer Law.

Our Take

Zoom out from the day and the message to Australian households is unusual. Inside a single fortnight the ACCC has blocked a Coles supermarket acquisition on competition grounds, activated a world-first excessive-pricing prohibition against Coles and Woolworths, opened its 10-day Down Down trial in the Federal Court, sued Amazon over Prime Video ad terms, sued a debt collector over 320,000 misleading notices, and locked in the October card-surcharge ban. Add the Frasers bid for Accent Group and the ongoing pressure on Chinese cross-border marketplaces (EU’s 3 euro parcel duty, ACCC investigation into Temu’s safety pledge), and the direction of travel across every corner of Australian retail is the same. Discount claims, subscription terms, “fresh” labels, “up to 80 per cent off” tickets and merger footprints all now need to be verifiable, not just marketable.

That is exactly why It’s On Sale exists. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. The AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “womens dresses under 80” or “ugg boots clearance”). None of it is Temu, Shein, AliExpress, Wish or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand. Browse Today’s Sales on the Saturday of the second week of the new financial year, with the regulator visibly on your side.

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

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Friday morning and the Federal Court is where the retail action still is. The ACCC has just sued Amazon Australia (and its US parent) over Prime subscription contract terms that let the company force ads onto more than a million existing annual subscribers without a refund. The Coles Down Down 10-day trial has opened in Melbourne, with the regulator arguing the campaign created “utterly misleading” illusory discounts on 245 products. Depop is stripping its 10 per cent seller commission on 22 July and moving that cost to buyers. The EU has flipped a 3 euro customs duty onto every parcel from Shein, Temu and AliExpress, and the ACCC continues to investigate the Temu safety pledge. Five fresh Australian stores today, all Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, none carried over from Wednesday or Thursday.

ACCC Sues Amazon Over Prime Video Ad Push

Australia’s competition regulator has filed Federal Court proceedings against Amazon Commercial Services Pty Ltd and Amazon Services LLC (its US parent), alleging five specific terms in Prime annual subscription contracts between November 2023 and August 2025 were unfair contract terms under Australian Consumer Law (TechShots, 7 July 2026). The core allegation: those terms allowed Amazon to unilaterally add advertising to Prime Video for more than a million existing annual subscribers, and to make other adverse changes to the service, without offering refunds or a genuine right to cancel. In July 2024 anyone wanting to keep the ad-free experience they had already paid for upfront (79 dollars a year) was told to pay an additional 2.99 dollars a month.

The ACCC is seeking declarations that the terms were void, civil penalties, consumer redress orders and legal costs. Around 850,000 annual subscribers are estimated to have been directly hit by the ad-forcing change (Academic Jobs, 5 July 2026). For any Australian household still on an annual Prime plan, the practical read is: hold every renewal receipt from that window, keep any email confirming the “no ads” promise you originally paid for, and watch for consumer redress details from the ACCC as the case progresses. Amazon has said it is reviewing the claim and has not yet filed its defence. This is a headline consumer-protection case, and the reputational damage lands squarely on Amazon in a week when Prime Day is running seven days in Australia (7 to 13 July) and independent reviewers keep pointing out that fewer than one in eight promoted discounts actually reach a new recorded low.

Coles Down Down Trial Opens in Melbourne Federal Court

A 10-day Federal Court hearing in Melbourne is now underway in the ACCC’s civil case against Coles Supermarkets over its Down Down pricing campaign, with Justice Michael O’Bryan hearing opening arguments on Monday 6 July (AAP via AOL, 8 July 2026). The regulator alleges Coles ran an “utterly misleading” pricing campaign between February 2022 and May 2023, briefly raising prices on around 245 staples (toothpaste, soft drinks, cheese, pet food) before advertising the reduced-back-to-normal number as a Down Down special. The ACCC opened by arguing this created “illusory” discounts and drove sales without giving households a genuine price benefit.

The trial follows the Federal Court’s finding last week that Coles made misleading representations on 13 of the 14 Down Down tickets already examined at the liability hearing (ACCC website). Coles denies wrongdoing, arguing the products were subject to natural price fluctuations and ordinary customers understood the market dynamics. For weekly shoppers, the read is the same one that has been building for a fortnight: screenshot any big-red price ticket that looks suspicious, note the shelf date, keep the receipt if you buy it, and if the “sustained reduction” was actually a two-week window inside a longer high-price period, that is now the kind of evidence the regulator is actively rewarded for pursuing.

Depop Strips 10 Per Cent Seller Commission, Shifts Fee to Buyers

Depop is scrapping its 10 per cent seller commission in Australia on 22 July and moving more of the cost onto buyers instead (Shopifreaks, 6 July 2026). Buyers will start paying a new marketplace fee of up to 5 per cent of the sale price plus 1 dollar per transaction. Sellers still cover Depop Payments processing (2.6 per cent plus 30 cents) via the Stripe-powered checkout that is now mandatory to list. The fee overhaul comes as eBay’s 1.2 billion dollar cash acquisition of Depop from Etsy awaits UK Competition and Markets Authority clearance, with a ruling due by 6 August (Australia’s ACCC cleared the deal in May).

For Australian second-hand fashion buyers, the practical effect from 22 July is that the “sticker price” on Depop stops being the total price. Add up to 6 dollars on a 100 dollar item on top of any shipping and payment processing. For sellers the change removes the commission but pushes buyer prices up, which typically compresses demand. If you have been meaning to buy something you have saved on Depop, the pre-22 July window is the cheaper window. If you have been meaning to sell, listing dates after 22 July are the cheaper window for you (but you will need to price competitively against the extra buyer fee).

EU Slaps 3 Euro Duty on Shein, Temu, AliExpress Parcels

The European Union has introduced a 3 euro customs duty on e-commerce parcels worth up to 150 euros imported from outside the bloc, effective 1 July, in a move targeted at Chinese ultra-low-price platforms including Shein, Temu and AliExpress (Shopifreaks, 6 July 2026). The temporary duty runs until July 2028, when the EU expects to move to a permanent category-based tariff system. Australia has no equivalent duty in place, but the direction of regulatory travel is now clear across three big consumer economies (EU, UK, US) that Chinese cross-border marketplaces will no longer trade duty-free forever.

Domestically, the ACCC’s investigation into Temu’s Australian Product Safety Pledge inclusion is still live after Choice complained in June that “substantial volumes” of dangerous products were being sold by pledge participants (ABC News, 5 July 2026). The federal 2026-27 budget allocated 6.6 million dollars over three years to overhaul the Australian product safety framework, including online marketplace reforms. For Australian households the read remains the same one we run every day at It’s On Sale: the retailers we feature (all Australian-owned or locally fulfilled) come with Australian Consumer Law protections, retail warranties enforceable in Australian courts, and refund rights the ACCC will actually back. Cross-border ultra-low-price marketplaces do not.

Myer Closeout Final Week, Toy Sale Rolling, Rates On Hold Until 11 August

Myer’s Stocktake Sale Closeout Offers are running the final week Monday 6 to Sunday 12 July, following the main stocktake window that closed in June (Myer, 3 July 2026). The Toy Sale Catalogue runs longer, 22 June to Sunday 19 July, with clearance pricing across LEGO, board games, outdoor toys and craft. If you have Myer One points sitting, closeout weeks are the highest-value redemption window because the base price is already the lowest of the campaign.

On monetary policy, the Reserve Bank does not sit in July, so the next cash rate decision is 11 August. The current cash rate is 4.10 per cent (Your Mortgage, 8 July 2026), and household consumer confidence rose off record lows in June but net buying intentions for major household items are still negative. On card payments, Assistant Minister for Competition Andrew Leigh confirmed this month that the ban on card surcharging for Visa, MasterCard and EFTPOS transactions kicks in October 2026 (Andrew Leigh transcript, 2 July 2026), removing another 1 to 2 per cent line item from most in-store and online checkouts. Between the excessive-pricing prohibition (1 July), the Down Down trial, the Amazon Prime lawsuit, the Coles-Kalgoorlie merger block and the coming surcharge ban, the second week of July is quietly turning into the most consumer-protective fortnight the Australian retail calendar has seen in a decade.

Five Fresh Australian Stores, Auditted at Dawn

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today, none carried over from Wednesday or Thursday, all headline discounts verified from the live sale pages.

1Today’s Top
DiscountSportsgirlWomen's FashionUp to 90 per cent off Sportsgirl’s sale range: knitwear, dresses, denim, outerwear and accessories from the Australian-owned womenswear label with 100-plus stores nationwide since 1948, free returns and click-and-collect.90%OFF2Rebel SportSport & FitnessUp to 85 per cent off Rebel Sport’s Fan Gear Clearance: AFL, NRL and A-League jerseys, sneakers and training kit from the Australian sporting-goods chain with 160-plus stores and free returns on unworn items.85%OFF3Kick Push SkateSkate & WheelsUp to 82 per cent off Kick Push Skate’s sale: skate decks, wheels, protective gear and skate apparel from the Australian-owned skate specialist with free shipping over 100 dollars and Australian warehousing.82%OFF4Elite SupplementsHealth & SupplementsUp to 80 per cent off Elite Supplements’ Sale: protein, pre-workout, recovery, vitamins and sports nutrition from the Australian-owned supplement retailer with 40-plus stores nationally and fast local dispatch.80%OFF5Colette HaymanBags & AccessoriesUp to 71 per cent off Colette Hayman’s Sale: handbags, wallets, jewellery, sunglasses and travel accessories from the Australian-owned accessory label since 1994, with 90-plus stores and free returns.71%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, a handful of other Australian-owned retailers are running strong cuts through Friday. Baku Swimwear (today’s Top 6 ticker pick) has up to 70 per cent off swimwear, resort wear and accessories from the Australian swim label since 1985, with free returns and Australian warehousing. Dusk is running up to 70 per cent off candles, diffusers, homewares and gifting from the Australian-owned homeware chain with 130-plus stores. Eckersleys has up to 70 per cent off art supplies, paints, canvas, journals and craft from the Australian art materials specialist since 1938. Decjuba is running up to 70 per cent off Australian-designed womenswear across dresses, tops, denim and knits, with 130-plus stores. Showpo has up to 80 per cent off Australian-founded fast-turn womenswear including dresses, going-out wear and denim. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, all Australian Consumer Law backed.

Our Take

Zoom out from the day and the pattern is stark. In the last 10 days the ACCC has sued Amazon over Prime Video contract terms, sued a debt collector over 320,000 misleading notices, opened its 10-day Down Down trial against Coles, blocked a Coles supermarket acquisition in Kalgoorlie, fined Lactalis over “fresh milk” labels, activated the excessive-pricing prohibition against Coles and Woolworths, and confirmed the October card-surcharge ban. That is a regulator moving with genuine intent, and it is happening in the second week of a new financial year when most Australian households are still recovering from a hard June quarter. Add in the EU’s tariff strike against Shein and Temu, and the direction of travel is clear: the discount claim, the subscription click, the “fresh” label and the “up to 90 per cent off” ticket all now need to be verifiable, not just marketable.

That is exactly why It’s On Sale exists. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned or locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. The AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “womens knitwear under 80” or “AFL jersey clearance”). None of it is Temu, Shein, AliExpress, Wish or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand. Browse Today’s Sales on the Friday of the second week of the new financial year, with the regulator visibly on your side.

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

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Thursday morning, and the Federal Court is doing overtime on behalf of Australian households. On 7 July the ACCC filed proceedings against debt collector ARMA Group Holdings and law firm Force Legal, alleging more than 320,000 misleading debt collection notices went out over three and a half years. On 3 July the same court ruled that Coles made misleading representations on 13 of the 14 Down Down price tickets it examined at the liability hearing, penalty phase to come. Amazon Prime Day is running in Australia from 7 to 13 July but independent analysis found fewer than one in eight discounted products actually reached a new recorded low. Coles is now in talks to buy the parent company of Petbarn and City Farmers for up to $4 billion, testing the new merger regime again. Five fresh Australian stores today, none carried over from Wednesday.

ACCC Sues ARMA Group Over 320,000 Misleading Debt Notices

The ACCC has filed Federal Court proceedings against debt collection agency ARMA Group Holdings Pty Ltd and law firm Force Legal Pty Ltd, alleging that the two companies together issued more than 320,000 misleading debt collection notices to Australian consumers over a period of more than three and a half years (Receivables Info, 7 July 2026). The ACCC alleges the notices misrepresented the legal status of the debts and the consequences of non-payment, including implying that Force Legal had been formally engaged to commence court action when in many cases it had not. The regulator will ask the court to declare the conduct misleading or deceptive under the Australian Consumer Law and to impose penalties and consumer redress.

The volume matters. 320,000 notices across 3.5 years averages to more than 250 misleading letters landing in Australian letterboxes every single day of the period covered by the pleadings. For any household that has received a payment demand from ARMA Group or a legal-looking letter from Force Legal since late 2022, the practical read is: do not pay from the letter alone. Australian Consumer Law entitles you to written proof of the debt, an itemised statement, and evidence that any legal escalation named in the letter has actually been authorised. Consumer credit lawyers spoken to by the trade press stress that the mere fact of a threat letter does not create a legal obligation. Keep every notice you have received, do not sign any acknowledgement of debt, and if the debt is genuinely owed, negotiate directly with the original creditor rather than the intermediary chasing it. The case sets a template the ACCC is highly likely to apply to any other bulk-notice debt collection operator whose paperwork does not match its authority.

Federal Court Rules Coles Misled on 13 of 14 Down Down Tickets

The Federal Court has found that Coles Supermarkets made misleading representations on 13 of the 14 Down Down price tickets that were considered at the liability hearing in the long-running ACCC price-representation case (ACCC website, 3 July 2026). The court held that in each of those 13 instances the ticket implied a genuine sustained reduction from a normal selling price when in fact the Down Down price was either the price the product had recently been reduced to as part of a preceding cycle, or matched a Woolworths equivalent price at the same time, or reflected a pass-through of a supplier price change that had already flowed through the market.

The lawyer-quoted commentary in the trade press was blunt: this is the first substantive judicial finding that the Down Down architecture itself, not just individual tickets, can breach the Australian Consumer Law when the pricing behind the ticket does not match the sustained-reduction implication. The Coles legal team has flagged an appeal option, but the penalty phase will now proceed regardless. For weekly shoppers the read is the same one that has been building since the excessive-pricing prohibition took effect 1 July and the merger-regime block on Kalgoorlie two days later: the era of unilateral supermarket price theatre is ending, and the two majors will need to underpin any big red discount ticket with a genuine sustained reduction. If a Down Down or Prices Dropped ticket looks aggressive, screenshot it, note the shelf date, and file it. The ACCC is now actively rewarded for pursuing evidence like that.

Amazon Prime Day AU 7 to 13 July: Under One in Eight True Lows

Amazon Australia’s Prime Day 2026 event is running as a standalone seven-day sale from 12:01 AM AEST Tuesday 7 July to 11:59 PM AEST Monday 13 July, but the shopper-side numbers are unflattering (Tech Times, 7 July 2026). Independent analysis of the discounted line-up across major categories found that fewer than one in eight products with a price change during the event actually reached a new recorded low. Most of the promoted discounts are cycling back to prices seen elsewhere on the calendar (April end-of-financial-year run-up, Black Friday 2025, Boxing Day 2025) rather than delivering genuinely fresh sub-baseline pricing.

For Australian shoppers the read is simple: verify before you click. Any big-ticket item worth more than a few hundred dollars should be cross-checked against its 90 to 180 day price history on a tracker before you commit. Genuine Australian-owned electronics competitors are running deep price cuts the same week: JB HiFi’s This Week’s Hottest Deals cycled through Tuesday, and Domayne, Harvey Norman and Bing Lee are running EOFY carryover pricing on appliances. On winter apparel and homewares the Top 6 stores in today’s Brief (Sussan, Lounge Lovers, Novo, Johnny Bigg, Booktopia and Mr Toys, all Australian-owned or locally fulfilled) offer categories Prime Day does not run. And on any Amazon-branded device (Kindle, Fire TV, Echo), the ACCC’s separate Federal Court action over Prime Video subscription contract terms, filed 29 June, sits in the background. Amazon has not yet filed its defence in that matter.

Coles Petbarn Talks: $4B Test of the New Merger Regime

The West Australian confirmed on 7 July that Coles Group is in talks to acquire Petstock Group, the parent company of pet retail chains Petbarn and City Farmers, in a deal reportedly valued at up to $4 billion (The West Australian, 7 July 2026). If the talks convert to a binding transaction it will be the largest test yet of the new mandatory merger notification regime that took effect 1 July. Any acquisition above the defined thresholds must now be notified to the ACCC in advance and cannot complete until cleared.

Consumer competition lawyers writing for Lawyerly noted that a Coles-Petstock combination raises the same category concentration questions the ACCC applied to the Kalgoorlie IGA block six days earlier: what happens to the independent pet-retail base if the biggest grocery chain also controls the biggest specialty pet chain (Lawyerly, 7 July 2026)? For Australian pet-owning households the immediate read is that Petbarn and City Farmers stores continue to trade independently under existing management while the ACCC reviews any notification that lands. The broader read is that the pattern is now consistent: the regulator is genuinely reviewing rather than rubber-stamping, and the two supermarket majors are being told to justify each new consolidation on its own competition merits.

Consumer Confidence Up, Buying Intentions Down, Rates On Hold

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence rose 3.1 points to 75.9 in the final week of June, its highest reading since early March (Ragtrader, 2 July 2026). But confidence is still 10.5 points lower than a year ago, and net buying intentions for major household items actually fell 3 percentage points, with just 19 per cent of respondents saying now is a good time to buy against 43 per cent saying now is a bad time. Households are feeling a bit less awful but are still holding back on the big-ticket items that furniture, appliance and electronics retailers depend on.

The rates side backs that up. The Reserve Bank does not meet in July, so the next cash rate decision is now scheduled for 11 August (Your Property Guide, 3 July 2026). The national preliminary auction clearance rate has slipped to 47.4 per cent, the weakest reading since April 2020, on scheduled auction volumes below 1,500 as winter deepens. Add the ACCC fining Lactalis Australia $59,400 for labelling its Valley WA and Golden North products as fresh milk when they contained significant powdered milk content (ABC News, 2 July 2026), and David Jones appointing its first female CEO in the department store’s 188-year history, and the picture that emerges is a household economy where the regulatory floor is being firmed up faster than the retail top-line is recovering. Which is exactly why the winter markdowns at today’s Top 6 stores are pricing to move stock, not to defend margin.

Five Fresh Australian Stores To Test Against Prime Day

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today (none carried over from Wednesday’s Top 6), audited at dawn on Thursday.

1Today’s Top
DiscountSussanWomen's FashionUp to 60 per cent off Sussan’s On Sale range: knitwear, tops, dresses, denim and outerwear from the Australian-owned womenswear label with 130-plus stores nationwide since 1939, free returns and click-and-collect.60%OFF2Lounge LoversFurniture & HomewaresUp to 55 per cent off Lounge Lovers’ Sale: sofas, dining, bedroom, rugs and decor from the Australian-owned furniture brand with fast metro delivery, free assembly options and interest-free finance available.55%OFF3NovoFootwearUp to 50 per cent off Novo’s Sale: boots, heels, sneakers, flats and bags from the Melbourne-founded footwear label since 1986, with 100-plus stores nationally and free returns on unworn styles.50%OFF4Johnny BiggMen's FashionUp to 50 per cent off Johnny Bigg’s Sale: bigger-sizes shirts, chinos, jeans, knits and outerwear from the Australian-founded menswear label built specifically for larger sizes, with 40-plus AU stores and free exchanges.50%OFF5BooktopiaBooks & MediaUp to 50 per cent off Booktopia’s Bargains: fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, kids and school reading from Australia’s largest online bookstore, with same-day dispatch on in-stock titles from a Sydney warehouse.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, a handful of other Australian-owned retailers are running strong cuts mid-week. Mr Toys Toyworld (today’s Top 6 ticker pick) has 50 per cent off LEGO, dolls, outdoor toys and craft in its winter school-holiday sale from the Australian-owned toy specialist. Best & Less is running clearance across kids, women’s and men’s apparel from the Australian family-fashion chain with 200-plus stores. Sportitude has up to 50 per cent off sports footwear and apparel from the Adelaide-based Australian retailer. OPSM‘s Special Offers include buy-one-get-one on prescription glasses from the Australian eyewear network. Bob Jane T-Mart is running tyre and battery promotions from the Australian-founded chain with 130-plus stores. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled.

Our Take

The through-line across today’s five stories is one word: verification. The ACCC is verifying that debt collection notices actually match the legal authority claimed. The Federal Court has just verified that a Down Down ticket does not necessarily mean a sustained price cut. Independent analysts have verified that fewer than one in eight Prime Day discounts hit a genuine low. The new merger regime is verifying that regional supermarket acquisitions do not quietly hollow out local competition. And the Lactalis fine has verified that the word “fresh” on a milk label has to mean fresh. Every one of those movements pushes the same request onto the household budget: check the claim, not just the sticker.

That is exactly why It’s On Sale exists. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place, none of them Temu, Shein, AliExpress, Wish or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand. The AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “womens knitwear under 80” or “sofa on sale under 2000”). Browse Today’s Sales on the Thursday of the second week of the new financial year, with the regulator on your side more than usual.

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

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Wednesday morning, and the ACCC has begun to swing the new tools handed to it a week ago. In Kalgoorlie, the regulator formally blocked Coles from acquiring a suburban IGA in the first live application of the new merger regime, a signal that grocery consolidation across regional Australia is now genuinely constrained. In the Federal Court, the ACCC has filed proceedings against Amazon Australia over its Prime Video ad rollout, alleging more than one million subscribers were misled into a $2.99 per month ad-free upsell between November 2023 and August 2025. Meanwhile Accent Group has told shareholders to reject a Frasers takeover bid, FTI Consulting is warning that the current wave of retail insolvencies is still building, and federal parliament has passed the Unfair Trading Practices Bill, banning subscription traps and drip pricing from 1 July 2027. Five fresh Australian stores today, none of them carried over from Monday.

ACCC Blocks Coles Kalgoorlie: New Merger Regime Bites

The ACCC has formally blocked Coles Group from acquiring an IGA-branded supermarket in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, the first substantive decision under the new mandatory merger notification regime that came into effect on 1 July 2026 (Lawyerly, 7 July 2026). Under the regime, any acquisition above defined thresholds must now be notified to the ACCC in advance and cannot complete until cleared, replacing the old voluntary regime that let the majors quietly roll up regional independents. Coles had argued the Kalgoorlie site was a routine store-level acquisition, but the ACCC held that consolidating a metropolitan-scale major with the local IGA in a remote market of roughly 30,000 residents would materially reduce competition for households with no realistic weekly alternative (Mirage News, 2 July 2026).

The precedent is significant. The West Australian noted that the decision is the first application anywhere in Australia of the new regime, and consumer advocacy groups have flagged that the ruling puts every other regional acquisition Coles or Woolworths might contemplate over the next twelve months under a much brighter spotlight (The West Australian, 3 July 2026). For households in regional Australia the practical read is that independent supermarkets, IGA-branded and otherwise, are now materially more likely to remain independent, and that the two majors will need to justify any regional expansion on public-benefit grounds before completion. For weekly shoppers everywhere it reinforces the pattern that emerged with the excessive pricing prohibition six days earlier: the era of unilateral supermarket action is ending, and the promotional cycles that come next will lean harder on genuine discounts rather than reference-price theatre.

Amazon Faces Federal Court Over Prime Video Ad Rollout

The ACCC has filed Federal Court proceedings against Amazon Australia Services, alleging misleading conduct and unfair contract terms in relation to the November 2023 Prime Video ad-tier rollout (Variety Australia, 1 July 2026). The proceedings, lodged on 29 June, cover an estimated one million-plus Australian Prime subscribers who between November 2023 and August 2025 either had advertising inserted into previously ad-free Prime Video content or were pushed to a $2.99 per month ad-free upsell. The ACCC alleges Amazon changed the terms of the subscription contract unilaterally, without adequate disclosure or the option to cancel without penalty, and that its communications to affected subscribers were misleading about their options (Tribune India, 1 July 2026).

The Deccan Herald summary put it starkly: the ACCC is asking the Federal Court to declare the changed subscription terms unfair under the Australian Consumer Law, seeking penalties and consumer redress that could total in the tens of millions of dollars (Deccan Herald, 1 July 2026). This is the same pattern as the earlier US Federal Trade Commission Prime cancellation settlement, but here the alleged conduct is a live unilateral variation of a paid subscription rather than a signup dark pattern. Household read: keep every confirmation email for any streaming, telco, insurance or software subscription; screenshot the pricing page the day you sign up; and prefer Australian-owned services where possible because the local regulator now has an active proceeding on the record. If you are one of the more than one million Prime subscribers who paid the $2.99 uplift, keep the receipts, the case may yet produce a redress mechanism.

Accent Group Rejects Frasers Takeover: Panel Application Filed

Accent Group, the ASX-listed Australian footwear operator behind Platypus, Skechers, Hype DC, The Athletes Foot and Stylerunner, has doubled down on its rejection of a takeover approach from UK-listed Frasers Group, controlled by British retail billionaire Mike Ashley (FashionUnited, 1 July 2026). Accent’s board reaffirmed on 7 July that the current Frasers proposal materially undervalues the business and does not reflect the growth pipeline across the Accent portfolio, and confirmed it has filed a Takeovers Panel application seeking orders to prevent Frasers from proceeding with any coercive tactics during the current market window (TipRanks, 7 July 2026).

The context is that Frasers has been quietly accumulating stakes in Australian retail names and simultaneously divesting non-core European businesses, including the recently announced Sports Direct Malaysia sale (Ragtrader, 3 July 2026). For Australian shoppers the immediate read is that the more than 550 Accent-owned stores across Platypus, Skechers, Hype DC and The Athletes Foot are all continuing to trade independently at full capacity, and the current 50 per cent off winter sale at Platypus (item 4 in today’s Top 5) is running on Accent’s own terms rather than any distressed pricing. The bigger read is about ownership: the boardroom argument this week is over who gets to control an Australian-founded, ASX-listed retailer with 130-plus stores of footwear inventory and a customer base squarely inside the Australian shopping economy.

Retail Insolvency Wave: 1,000 More To Come, FTI Warns

FTI Consulting has published a fresh forecast warning that the current wave of Australian retail insolvencies is still building, with an estimated 1,000 retail insolvencies expected across FY26 versus 319 recorded in FY22 (Ragtrader, 2 July 2026). The list of names already in administration or receivership across the past twelve months includes Betts (134-year-old Perth footwear icon), Stax, GeedUp, Glue Store, Lincraft, SurfStitch, Ally Fashion, Jeanswest, Wittner and Mosaic Brands (owner of Millers, Rivers, Katies, Noni B and Autograph). FTI’s read is that persistent margin compression, weak discretionary spending in fashion and homewares, and refinancing pressure as pandemic-era debt facilities roll off are combining to force a structural reset of the mid-tier retail base.

The practical read for Australian shoppers is twofold. First, gift cards and store credits at any mid-tier fashion or homewares retailer should be redeemed rather than held, because voluntary administration can freeze balances overnight. Second, the ranges most likely to see genuine markdowns over the next quarter are winter clearance in fashion and mid-price furniture and homewares, exactly the categories where Domayne, Dissh and GAZMAN in today’s Top 6 are pricing hard. The market rebalance is real, and it is happening at the store shelf as much as in the courts.

Unfair Trading Bill Passed: Subscription Traps Banned

Federal parliament passed the Unfair Trading Practices Bill on 2 July, delivering on the reform package flagged by Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh earlier in the year (Andrew Leigh MP, 2 July 2026). The legislation bans a defined list of unfair trading practices under the Australian Consumer Law, including subscription traps (making it easier to sign up than to cancel), drip pricing (adding mandatory fees only at checkout), and manipulative use of dark patterns in online purchase flows. The full ban comes into force from 1 July 2027, giving retailers and platforms twelve months to redesign their signup, checkout and cancellation systems.

Alongside the bill, the Reserve Bank of Australia held the cash rate at 4.35 per cent at its 8 July meeting, maintaining a hawkish bias with the next meeting scheduled for August (RateSniffers, 8 July 2026). ABS data covering May showed household spending bounced back after a soft April, and The West Australian noted that the retail sector is entering the second half of 2026 with steadier demand than a year ago (The West Australian, 6 July 2026). The combined read: on the consumer protection front, the rules are tightening in the shopper’s favour; on rates, the tightening cycle is holding rather than easing, which continues to squeeze big-ticket discretionary spend and gives the promotional pressure across today’s Top 6 categories real underlying force.

Five Fresh Australian Stores To Take On The New Retail Reality

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today (none carried over from Monday’s Top 6), audited at dawn on Wednesday.

1Today’s Top
DiscountJB HiFiElectronicsUp to 50 per cent off JB HiFi’s This Week’s Hottest Deals: laptops, TVs, headphones, gaming, small appliances and mobile from the ASX-listed Australian electronics retailer with 300+ stores nationwide, price beat guarantee and next-day metro delivery.50%OFF2DomayneFurniture & HomewaresUp to 50 per cent off Domayne’s Hot Deals: sofas, beds, dining, homewares and major appliances from the Australian-owned Harvey Norman Group brand, with EOFY carryover pricing, interest-free finance and free metro delivery on qualifying orders.50%OFF3DisshWomen's FashionUp to 50 per cent off Dissh’s Sale: tailoring, dresses, knits, denim and outerwear from the Brisbane-founded contemporary womenswear label with modern minimalist styling and free returns, plus their signature winter capsule reduced.50%OFF4Platypus ShoesFootwear & SneakersUp to 50 per cent off Platypus Shoes’ Sale: sneakers, casual footwear and boots from Nike, Adidas, Converse, Puma, New Balance and Vans at the Accent Group-owned Australian sneaker specialist with 130+ stores and click-and-collect in-store.50%OFF5Chemist WarehouseBeauty & HealthUp to 50 per cent off Chemist Warehouse’s Clearance: skincare, fragrance, vitamins, haircare and personal care from the Australian-owned pharmacy giant with 600+ stores nationwide and $10 flat shipping under $99.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, a handful of other Australian-owned stores are running strong cuts mid-week. GAZMAN (the Top 6 ticker pick) has 50 per cent off menswear shirts, chinos, knitwear and outerwear from the Australian-founded menswear brand with 40-plus standalone stores nationwide. Domayne‘s sister brand Harvey Norman is running EOFY carryover Hot Offers across furniture, bedding and appliances from the Australian-founded ASX-listed group. Dissh‘s winter capsule sits at 50 per cent off from the Brisbane womenswear label. Platypus Shoes is holding 50 per cent off sneakers from the Accent Group specialist. Chemist Warehouse’s Clearance is running deep on skincare and fragrance from the Australian-owned pharmacy leader. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled and worth a scan.

Our Take

The through-line across today’s five stories is the same one that has been building since the start of the new financial year: the regulator is now materially closer to the household than to the multinational. The ACCC has blocked its first grocery acquisition under a merger regime that is one week old. It has filed Federal Court proceedings against Amazon over Prime Video conduct that touched more than a million Australian subscribers. The Unfair Trading Practices Bill has passed, so subscription traps and drip pricing are legally on notice from July next year. Accent Group is fighting off a UK takeover attempt with a Takeovers Panel application. And FTI Consulting is warning that another 700-plus retail insolvencies are still to work through the system, which is exactly why the winter markdowns at today’s Top 6 stores are running deeper than usual for a Wednesday in July. Every one of those movements shifts a small amount of pricing power, product depth or after-sale protection back toward the household budget.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built for that decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “womens knitwear under 80” or “sneakers on sale mens”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Browse Today’s Sales on the second Wednesday of the new financial year.

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

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Monday morning, and the balance of power between Australia’s largest retailers and the households that keep them profitable has just shifted materially. The ACCC’s new excessive pricing prohibition is six days live, with penalties for Coles and Woolworths of up to the greater of $10 million, three times the benefit, or 10 per cent of annual turnover. In Perth, 134-year-old footwear icon Betts has entered voluntary administration and will close 20 of its 35 stores, with 120,000 pairs of shoes, bags and accessories going on clearance from Friday. The fuel excise cut is now live at 16 cents a litre, saving households roughly $8 to $10 per tank, but only through 2 August. Amazon’s Federal Court case with the ACCC over Prime Video contract changes is still running alongside a fresh US$2.25 million FTC settlement. And retail spending has just come in 5.8 per cent higher year on year for May. The winter shopping calendar has a new tempo, and today’s five stores respond to it.

ACCC Turns On Coles and Woolies: Price Watchdog Now Live

The federal government’s excessive pricing prohibition for Coles Group and Woolworths Group came into force on 1 July, giving the ACCC direct authority to prosecute either supermarket for pricing conduct deemed excessive under the new regime (Retail Insight Network, 29 June 2026). The threshold covers any grocery retailer with more than $30 billion in annual revenue, which in Australia is only Coles and Woolworths. Penalties for a proven contravention are the greater of $10 million per contravention, three times the benefit gained, or 10 per cent of the offender’s annual Australian turnover (The Market Online, 29 June 2026). The Food and Grocery Code is also now mandatory rather than voluntary, and the ACCC has been allocated more than $30 million in additional funding to police it (SBS News, 30 June 2026).

The mechanics matter for households. RMIT economist Peter Sarno points out that the new regime targets pricing that is materially higher than could be justified in a competitive market, and that the ACCC now has both the mandate and the resourcing to build cases from supermarket price data (RMIT, 29 June 2026). ABC AM’s coverage on 1 July confirmed that the government has also expanded the ACCC’s grocery price monitoring role in parallel, so shelf-price accuracy, unit pricing and promotional integrity are now under continuous surveillance (ABC AM, 1 July 2026). The practical read for shoppers is that overtly discounted specials are more likely to be genuine, and that the promotional cycles across the two majors will be leaning heavier on real price cuts rather than reference-price theatre. If you have been holding off on a switch across your weekly grocery shop, the next twelve weeks are the moment to test whether the promised discipline is real.

Betts Shuts 20 Stores: 120,000 Pairs on Clearance Friday

Perth-founded footwear icon Betts, which has been trading continuously since 1892, has entered voluntary administration and will close 20 of its 35 Australian stores in the coming weeks (PerthNow, 2 July 2026). Administrators Pitcher Partners were appointed on 2 July and confirmed that seven of the closures are in Western Australia, including the flagship Hay Street Mall store in the Perth CBD, along with Cockburn Gateway, Mandurah Forum, Watertown Perth, DFO Perth Airport, Whitford City and one of the two Joondalup locations. A further 13 stores will close across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. The remaining 15 stores will continue trading, and the brand’s online business (bettsshoes.com.au) will be the primary growth channel going forward (ABC News, 2 July 2026).

For the Australian shopper the practical read is a large, time-limited clearance event. Pitcher Partners has confirmed that a combined 120,000 pairs of shoes, bags and accessories will be on clearance across the 20 closing stores from Friday 3 July, with markdowns escalating as the administration process progresses. Household priorities to consider: school shoes for the July holidays, winter boots for southern states, and any wide-fit or comfort ranges that Betts has historically stocked stronger than the national chains. If you shop at any of the 20 closing locations, it is worth a Friday-morning visit before the best sizing goes. The 15 continuing stores will absorb the loss inventory over the following six weeks, so remote and regional shoppers will likely see the clearance run online through mid-August as well.

Fuel Excise Halved: Live Until 2 August Only

The federal government’s temporary fuel excise reduction from 32 cents per litre to 16 cents per litre came into force on 1 July and runs through to 2 August 2026, with the ACCC monitoring pump prices at over 800 retail sites to ensure the reduction is passed on to motorists (Supermarket News, 29 June 2026). For a family with two cars and a combined weekly refuel of around 100 litres, the saving is roughly $16 per week, or $65 over the month the cut is live. Households in regional Australia where fuel prices sit higher on average will see a proportionally larger saving on total motoring cost (The West Australian, 29 June 2026).

The hard deadline is Sunday 2 August, at which point the excise reverts to 32 cents per litre. The ACCC has publicly warned retailers against front-loading price rises immediately after the cut ends, and consumer groups have flagged this window as an opportunity for households to catch up on any deferred driving-heavy tasks. Practical suggestions for the four weeks: complete the July school holiday road-trip, fill the second car and any spare jerry cans on the final Sunday, and time the servicing that involves a long drive to a specialist workshop while the pump price is meaningfully lower. The saving is real but time-bound, and there is no signal from Treasury that the reduction will be extended.

Amazon: ACCC Case Continues, FTC Settlement Paid

Amazon has agreed to a US$2.25 million settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission over its Prime signup and cancellation dark patterns, announced on 30 June (Yahoo Finance, 30 June 2026). The settlement covers conduct between April 2019 and August 2025 that made Prime cancellation deliberately obscure, with the FTC finding that Amazon designed the flow to minimise customer awareness of the cancel option. Separately, the ACCC’s Federal Court proceeding against Amazon Australia over Prime Video contract changes is continuing, with the regulator alleging that Amazon unilaterally altered subscription terms for more than one million Australian Prime members between November 2023 and August 2025, moving customers to a $2.99 per month ad-free upsell without adequate consent (ABC News, 30 June 2026). Regional coverage in The News International summarised the case as the ACCC’s largest unilateral-contract-change proceeding to date (The News International, 1 July 2026).

The read for Australian households is unchanged from last week: exercise real caution with any long-term subscription where the seller retains the right to unilaterally alter terms mid-contract. Keep the confirmation email for every subscription change, and prefer Australian-owned retailers where the Australian Consumer Law applies cleanly and the local regulator has active enforcement teeth. For everyday shopping, the Australian-owned alternatives across today’s Top 6 sit on much stronger ground on both consumer guarantees and returns terms.

Retail Spending Up 5.8 Per Cent, Wage Rises Live

Australian retail spending grew 5.8 per cent year on year in May 2026, the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed at the end of June, with cost-of-living pressures driving households toward essentials and value categories rather than curbing overall spending (Retail Asia, 30 June 2026). The categories carrying most of the growth were supermarkets and food, health services and beauty, and household appliances, while discretionary apparel and footwear stayed roughly flat. Small-business retailers across the country also confirmed a firmer trading pattern than a year ago, with local specialty stores flagging a lift on winter and school-holiday categories.

The July round of cost-of-living changes reinforces the picture. The national minimum wage rose 3.75 per cent from 1 July to $26.44 per hour ($1004.72 per 38-hour week), lifting take-home pay for around 2.9 million workers on award rates (The Guardian, 30 June 2026). Payday superannuation is also live, meaning employers must now pay super contributions within seven business days of each payday rather than on the old quarterly cycle (AreaSearch, 30 June 2026). Parental Leave Pay has been extended to 24 weeks and now attracts superannuation. The combined effect for the average household is a small but real lift in weekly income at exactly the same moment retailers step into their post-EOFY winter push, which is why the promotional pressure on shelf pricing across today’s Top 6 categories is running heavier than usual for early July.

Five Fresh Australian Stores To Take On The New Retail Reality

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today (none carried over from yesterday’s Top 6), audited at dawn on Monday.

1Today’s Top
DiscountRebel SportSport & FitnessUp to 60 per cent off Rebel Sport’s Sale hub: running shoes, cross-trainers, football boots, gym apparel, weights, bikes and camping gear from the ASX-listed Super Retail Group’s flagship Australian sports specialist, with over 400 stores nationwide and click and collect in one hour.60%OFF2Modern FurnitureFurnitureUp to 60 per cent off Modern Furniture’s On Sale collection: sofas, dining, bedroom, office and outdoor pieces from the Australian-owned Melbourne-based furniture retailer, with EOFY clearance rolling into July and free Sydney and Melbourne metro delivery on select ranges.60%OFF3SportsgirlWomen's FashionUp to 50 per cent off Sportsgirl’s Sale: winter knits, denim, dresses, coats, boots and accessories from the Australian-owned Melbourne-founded fashion brand (part of the Sussan Group), with online exclusive extra cuts and free returns in-store.50%OFF4Culture KingsStreetwear & SneakersUp to 50 per cent off Culture Kings’ Sale: streetwear, sneakers, caps, jerseys and hoodies from the Aussie streetwear icon (part of the US-listed A.K.A. Brands but AU-headquartered in the Gold Coast), with new drops from Nike, Adidas, Puma and homegrown labels.50%OFF5Bras N ThingsLingerieUp to 50 per cent off Bras N Things’ Sale: bras, briefs, lingerie, sleepwear and shapewear from the Australian-owned Sydney-founded intimate apparel specialist (part of ASX-listed Hanes Australia), with online-only markdowns and buy three save more bundles.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, another handful of Australian-owned stores are running strong cuts to kick off the new financial year. YD (the Top 6 ticker pick) is holding menswear suits, shirts, chinos and knitwear up to 50 per cent off from the Australian menswear specialist under Retail Apparel Group. Rebel Sport has EOFY runover cuts up to 60 per cent across running, football and gym gear from the Super Retail Group flagship. Culture Kings‘ Sale sits with 50 per cent off streetwear and sneakers from the Gold Coast-founded streetwear icon. Bras N Things has 50 per cent off lingerie, sleepwear and shapewear from the Hanes Australia intimates specialist. Modern Furniture‘s On Sale holds 60 per cent off sofas, dining and beds from the Melbourne-based furniture retailer. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled and worth a scan.

Our Take

The through-line across today’s five stories is that a genuine rebalance is underway. The ACCC has the mandate and the money to take Coles and Woolworths to court over pricing conduct that would have been untouchable a year ago. A 134-year-old Perth footwear icon has been forced to shrink, and 120,000 pairs of shoes are about to hit clearance because the market discipline has arrived. Motorists are paying half the excise for four weeks, and the ACCC is watching the pumps. Amazon is paying penalties on two continents. And retail spending is running 5.8 per cent higher year on year on the back of a minimum wage rise and payday super. Every one of those movements shifts a small amount of pricing power, product depth or after-sale protection back toward the household budget. Monday morning is a good time to notice that.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built for that decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “kids school shoes under 40” or “winter coat womens on sale”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Browse Today’s Sales on day six of the new financial year.

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

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Sunday morning, and the retail battle for Australian household budgets has a new front. Metcash has relaunched its Big Family Big Prizes campaign across more than 3,200 independent stores under the IGA, IGA Local Grocer, Foodland and Mitre 10 banners, a direct fightback against the Coles and Woolworths duopoly. Card surcharges will be banned on debit and credit transactions from 1 October, freeing shoppers from a $960 million annual tax on plastic. In Kalgoorlie, the ACCC has blocked a Coles airport-adjacent second store and the community has publicly cheered the decision. Amazon has paid a US$2.25 million FTC settlement while the ACCC’s Federal Court case over Prime Video contract changes rolls on. And at David Jones, incoming chief executive Erica Berchtold enters week one with a $95 million loss on the P&L and a new Hilco lending facility on the balance sheet. It is a busy Sunday, but every headline lands the same way: better options for the Australian shopper.

IGA Fires Back: Metcash Relaunches Big Family Big Prizes

Metcash has relaunched its Big Family Big Prizes consumer promotion across more than 3,200 independent Australian stores from 1 July, spanning IGA, IGA Local Grocer, Foodland and Mitre 10 banners nationally (Retail World Magazine, 30 June 2026). The mechanics are straightforward for shoppers: any purchase at a participating store enters the customer into weekly draws for cash prize pools running through the campaign period, with in-store point-of-sale collateral and shopper marketing behind the relaunch. The campaign lands in the same week Metcash confirmed the appointment of former Unilever ANZ chief executive Nicky Sparshott to the Metcash board as a non-executive director, adding grocery marketing depth at the top level of Australia’s largest independent grocery wholesaler.

The commercial context is important. Metcash is the wholesale supplier and marketing engine behind the country’s largest genuinely independent grocery network, and Big Family Big Prizes is one of the few national brand-marketing pushes in Australian grocery that is not owned by Coles Group or Woolworths. The relaunch also lands ahead of the federal government’s expanded ACCC grocery pricing surveillance role, which took effect on 1 July and gives the regulator sharper teeth on shelf-price accuracy, unit-pricing compliance and promotional-price integrity. Independent retailers are the direct beneficiaries of any tightening of the duopoly’s promotional discipline, and Metcash’s timing is deliberate.

For Australian households the practical read is a real prompt to add an IGA visit to the weekly shop, particularly for households outside metropolitan Coles and Woolworths corridors. Big Family Big Prizes overlays on top of the IGA Rewards program and any store-level specials, which means the offer stacks. If you have not walked into an IGA, Foodland or an IGA Local Grocer in the last twelve months, the fresh produce, meat and specialty ranges have quietly rebuilt. Sunday afternoon is a reasonable time to test it.

Card Surcharge Ban Locks In For 1 October

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s final report on the retail payments system, published at the end of March, confirmed that surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa transactions (debit, prepaid and credit) will be banned from 1 October 2026 (NEWS WIRE, 28 June 2026). The Treasurer’s office has confirmed the RBA’s proposed timeline, and the industry-facing implementation guidance to acquirers and merchant service providers has already been issued. The practical effect for a household paying by tap or insert at a cafe, a hair salon, a taxi rank or a corner store is that the 1 to 2 per cent surcharge that has quietly been added to millions of transactions each day disappears from the receipt.

The Australian Retailers Association and the Council of Small Business Australia have both flagged that merchants will need to renegotiate acquiring fees with their banks and payment providers, and some are expected to bake the cost back into a broader margin recalibration. That is a real risk for prices on the shelf, and the ACCC has signalled it will watch for any coordinated price adjustment in the six months either side of the ban. Consumer Action Law Centre welcomed the change and noted that surcharging has functioned as a regressive tax on households without cash alternatives, particularly younger shoppers, renters and international students. The net position for the average Australian is a genuine improvement on out-of-pocket costs at the checkout, and the compounding annual saving for a household that spends $60,000 a year on cards is meaningful.

Kalgoorlie Backs ACCC After Coles Store Blocked

The community of Kalgoorlie-Boulder has publicly thrown its support behind the ACCC’s decision to reject a proposed second Coles supermarket on the site adjacent to the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport, with residents citing concerns about small-business competition and long-term local pricing (ABC News, 3 July 2026). The decision, handed down earlier in the week, was the first time the ACCC has formally rejected a supermarket store proposal under the expanded review process that took effect this year (ABC News, 1 July 2026). Coles has said it is disappointed with the outcome and is reviewing its options, but has not indicated any intention to appeal at this stage.

The Kalgoorlie outcome sets a real precedent. The ACCC’s expanded remit on grocery competition, combined with the price surveillance role that took effect on 1 July, gives the regulator broader tools than it has had at any point since the current supermarket duopoly settled into place two decades ago. For the Australian shopper, the practical consequence over the next twelve months is likely to be more transparent shelf pricing, faster action on unit-price errors and a stronger footing for independent retailers to secure planning approvals in regional catchments. The Kalgoorlie community’s public backing of the ACCC decision matters because it is a signal that the appetite for a rebalance is real, and not confined to the capital cities.

Amazon Pays FTC Settlement, ACCC Case Continues

Amazon has agreed to a US$2.25 million settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission over its Prime signup and cancellation flow (the so-called dark-pattern case), announced on 30 June (Yahoo Finance, 30 June 2026). Separately, the ACCC’s Federal Court proceeding against Amazon Australia over Prime Video contract changes is continuing, with the regulator alleging that Amazon unilaterally altered subscription terms for more than one million Australian Prime members between November 2023 and August 2025, moving customers to a $2.99 per month ad-free upsell without adequate consent (ABC News, 30 June 2026). Lawyerly’s court filing summary sets out the specific consumer-law breaches the ACCC is pursuing (Lawyerly, 30 June 2026).

The read for Australian households is unchanged from earlier in the week: exercise real caution with any long-term subscription commitment where the seller retains the right to unilaterally alter terms mid-contract. Read the fine print on renewal, retain the confirmation email for every subscription change, and prefer Australian-owned retailers where the Australian Consumer Law applies cleanly and the local regulator has active enforcement teeth. For everyday shopping, the Australian-owned alternatives across today’s Top 6 sit on much stronger ground on both consumer guarantees and returns terms.

Berchtold’s First Week At David Jones: $95M Loss And A New Playbook

Erica Berchtold has stepped into the David Jones chief executive role in the same week the department store’s parent Anchorage Capital confirmed a full-year loss of $95 million and an 8.7 per cent decline in sales to $2 billion (FashionNetwork.com, 28 June 2026). The company has also secured a new three-year asset-backed lending facility with Hilco Global, which provides the working-capital headroom to fund the Inspire 30 strategic plan Berchtold will oversee. Inspire 30 is understood to sharpen the David Jones proposition around premium fashion, beauty and gifting, and to accelerate the store-refresh programme in flagship Sydney and Melbourne locations.

For the David Jones shopper the near-term signal is EOFY-and-into-July clearance discipline, followed by a tighter buy on premium womenswear, beauty exclusives and food hall as the Berchtold era’s own product mix takes hold from spring. The loyalty programme (David Jones Rewards) is likely to see refinement inside the first hundred days. If you shop David Jones on rewards or holiday-gifting cycles, the next quarter is genuinely the most interesting the store has had since Anchorage took over.

Five Fresh Australian Stores To Reset The Winter Wardrobe

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today (none carried over from yesterday’s Top 6), audited at dawn on Sunday.

1Today’s Top
DiscountTemple & WebsterFurniture & HomewaresUp to 70 per cent off Temple & Webster’s Sale Furniture: sofas, dining tables, bed frames, storage, outdoor furniture and homewares from the ASX-listed Sydney-headquartered Australian online furniture retailer, with EOFY clearance rolling into July across thousands of items and free shipping on orders over $100.70%OFF2KathmanduOutdoor & AdventureUp to 60 per cent off Kathmandu’s Outlet: down jackets, waterproof shells, hiking boots, thermal base layers, packs and travel gear from the Australasian outdoor brand (part of ASX-listed KMD Brands), covering the winter transition and shoulder season, with click and collect from stores across the country.60%OFF3MyerDepartment StoreUp to 50 per cent off Myer’s Offers hub: womenswear, menswear, kidswear, homewares, beauty, cosmetics and small appliances from the ASX-listed Australian department store, with the Winter Wardrobe sale running alongside brand-partner promotions and Myer One member exclusives.50%OFF4Cotton OnFashionUp to 50 per cent off Cotton On’s womens sale: winter tees, hoodies, denim, dresses, jackets and basics from the Geelong-founded Australian-owned global fashion group, with online exclusive markdowns and free shipping thresholds through the Cotton On Perks membership.50%OFF5BondsUnderwear & BasicsUp to 50 per cent off Bonds’ sale: winter warmers, everyday underwear, socks, sleepwear, activewear and kids essentials from the Aussie icon owned by ASX-listed Hanes Australia, with online-only cuts across the Zippy, Chesty and Original ranges.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, another handful of Australian-owned stores are running strong cuts this weekend. Big Bedding (the Top 6 ticker pick) is holding quilts, sheet sets and pillows up to 50 per cent off from the Australian bedding specialist. David Jones has EOFY discounts up to 50 per cent live for Erica Berchtold’s first weekend at the helm, with an extra 20 per cent off clearance. Target Australia‘s Clearance continues with strong toys and kidswear cuts under the Wesfarmers-owned discount department chain. Koala‘s clearance is holding on mattresses, sofas and bed frames from the Australian-founded direct-to-consumer bedding brand. Domayne‘s Hot Deals rolls into July from the Harvey Norman Group Australian furniture retailer. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled and worth a scan.

Our Take

The through-line across today’s five stories is that Australian shoppers are picking up leverage. The independent grocery network is back on the offensive with a $6 million national campaign. Card surcharges disappear from every receipt in 88 days. The competition regulator has just used its new grocery powers to block a Coles store in a regional community that publicly backed the decision. Amazon is paying penalties on two continents. And at David Jones, an Australian retail leader with an e-commerce brain has just taken the top job. Every one of those movements shifts a small amount of pricing power, product depth or after-sale protection back toward the household budget. Sunday afternoon is a good time to notice that.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built for that decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “kids winter jacket under 50” or “quilt cover queen on sale”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Browse Today’s Sales on day five of the new year.

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