Bob Brown Foundation has written to the Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, calling for an investigation of the Coles Group and Woolworths Group for ‘substantial lessening of competition’ in the market for own-brand Tasmanian farmed salmon. Such lessening of competition would be in breach of s.45 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
The letter has an attached statement from prominent businessman Geoff Cousins who says discussions between the chairmen of Coles and Woolworths were followed by Woolworths deciding to follow Coles’ lead in removing from their home brand the claim that Tasmanian salmon is ‘responsibly sourced’.
Bob Brown, who has known Cousins for decades, says “Geoff Cousins’ statement speaks for itself. These supermarket chains cannot remove labelling that the salmon is responsibly sourced and expect the public to think other than that the salmon is irresponsibly sourced – not least from Macquarie Harbour where the industry threatens the extinction of the harbour’s unique Maugean skate.”
Cousins has been informed that there have also been meetings between senior executives of the big two supermarket chains to discuss the farming of salmon.
In the letter to the ACCC from Hobart law firm Fitzgerald and Browne, BBF’s solicitor Roland Browne suggests that the Commission ‘utilises its powers of compulsory disclosure to obtain records relating to these meetings of senior executives, but also records relating to the meetings (at least two, it seems) by the chairmen of the two companies’.
Cousin’s says that the chairman of Woolworths, Scott Perkins, told him there is an “overall problem” with salmon farming in Tasmania and that removing the words ‘responsibly resourced’ from labelling was “a big thing”.
Brown says “our foundation has spent years trying to have the three polluting salmon companies removed from Tasmania’s pristine seas. The companies are aided and abetted by the supermarkets selling their salmon. It’s imperative that the ACCC investigate the murky connections between the salmon companies and salmon sellers so that the air, if not the seas, is cleared for everyone to see.”
The ACCC has acknowledged receipt of the foundation’s letter.