You've felt it standing in the aisle. A bright yellow tag screams “50% OFF” over a product you buy every week, and something in the back of your mind whispers: hang on, wasn't this about the same price last month? You're not being cynical. You're being observant. And in May 2026, after a case brought by the country's consumer watchdog, the Federal Court agreed with you.
The Discount That Wasn't
Here's the tactic that's quietly eroded trust in the yellow tag. It's called “was/now” pricing, and on the surface it's completely reasonable: a product has a regular price, it goes on sale, and the tag shows you the old price crossed out next to the new, lower one. You can see exactly what you're saving.
The problem starts when the “was” price isn't really the regular price. If a retailer nudges a price up for a short stretch, then drops it back down to roughly where it started and slaps a “special” sticker on it, the maths still looks like a saving. But you're not paying less than you normally would. You're paying the usual price with a story attached.
It's the retail equivalent of a magic trick: the discount is real on the tag, but the saving is an illusion.
Anatomy of a phantom discount
The same jar of pasta sauce, tracked over six months
A genuine discount ends below where the price started. A phantom one lands right back on the line it always sat on. The “$1.50 saving” is measured off a price that only existed for a fortnight.
This Isn't Just a Hunch: a Court Has Now Ruled on It
In September 2024 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched Federal Court proceedings against Australia's two largest supermarkets, alleging that hundreds of everyday products had been run through exactly this kind of “was/now” promotion after short-lived price rises.
On 14 May 2026, the first of those cases was decided. The Federal Court found that Coles had misled customers through its long-running “Down Down” promotion, in breach of sections 18(1) and 29(1)(i) of the Australian Consumer Law. The proceedings concerned 245 products. Of the 14 sample “Down Down” tickets examined at the liability hearing, the Court found that 13 conveyed misleading claims about how genuine the discount was.
The pattern the Court looked at is the one drawn in the chart above: each product's price was temporarily raised by at least 15 per cent for a relatively short period, then moved onto the promotion at a price that was still the same as, or higher than, what it had sold for before the rise.
The decisive question was not whether the “was” price was ever real. It was how long it lasted. A “was” price can be misleading even when an item genuinely sold at that price, if it was only held for a short time before the “special” began. A discount isn't automatically honest just because a higher price existed for a few days. What matters is whether that price was the genuine, regular selling price.
Source: ACCC, “Court finds that Coles misled customers over ‘Down Down’ claims” (14 May 2026).
Two things are worth being precise about, because the story isn't finished. First, the Court has ruled on liability but has not yet decided penalties, and an appeal remains possible. Second, the ACCC brought separate proceedings against Woolworths over its “Prices Dropped” promotion. Those allegations have not been decided by the Court, so they remain allegations.
But the shopper's takeaway doesn't hinge on either of those. It isn't that “every special is a scam”. Most aren't, and genuine half-price deals are still one of the best ways to cut your grocery bill. The takeaway is subtler and more useful: the tag alone can't tell you whether you're actually saving money. A court needed months of evidence and pricing records to work out which discounts were real. You get a few seconds in front of a shelf. You need a reference point the store doesn't control.
How to Spot a Phantom Discount
You don't need to become a forensic accountant at the checkout. A few habits will catch most of the tricks.
Ignore the “was” price. Look at the unit price.
Under the Retail Grocery Industry (Unit Pricing) Code of Conduct, larger grocery retailers (broadly, stores over 1,000 square metres that stock the minimum range of food items, plus online grocery retailers) must show a unit price, such as the price per 100g, per litre or per item. That covers the major chains you shop at each week, though smaller stores are exempt and display it only if they choose to.
That little number in the corner is your best defence, because it's much harder to dress up. Compare the unit price of the “special” against similar products and pack sizes. A “discount” that still has a worse unit price than the item next to it isn't a deal.
Pasta sauce · 500g
$4.50
Plain regular price · better value
Pasta sauce · 700g
$7.00was $8.00
Looks like the deal · actually dearer
Same sauce, bigger jar, but the “special” costs 10¢ more per 100g. The big number grabs you; the little unit price in the corner tells the truth.
Know what you normally pay.
A discount only means something relative to your regular price, not the crossed-out one. If you can remember (or better, look up) what a product usually costs you, a fake special falls apart instantly. The trouble is that almost nobody remembers the regular price of 40 different items, which is precisely what the tactic relies on.
Be wary of “always on special” products.
If an item seems to be discounted almost every single week, the “special” price probably is the regular price, and the crossed-out number is the fiction. Genuine specials rotate; permanent ones are just marketing.
“Always on special”· 16 weeks straight
If it never comes off “special”, the special is the price, and the crossed-out number is the fiction.
A genuine special· comes and goes
A real discount rotates in and out. Wait a couple of weeks and it comes back around.
Watch the pack size, not just the price.
Sometimes the price holds steady while the pack quietly shrinks. It's called “shrinkflation”. A special that celebrates a low price on a smaller box can be worse value than the full-price larger one. Again: the unit price gives the game away.
Give it a fortnight.
The conduct the Court examined depended on price rises that lasted weeks, not months. If a “special” appears on something whose price you noticed creeping up recently, and it isn't urgent, wait a cycle and watch what happens. Genuine specials come back around. For a sense of how the cycles work, see our guide to Woolworths and Coles pricing. For what is on special now, see this week's Coles, Woolworths and Aldi catalogue specials for Melbourne, biggest % off first.
Trust, but Verify
Every tip above comes back to the same thing: you need your own record of what you pay. The store resets its tags every week and counts on your memory being fuzzy. The single most powerful move a shopper can make is to stop relying on memory altogether.
This is exactly why we built Alydo. Snap a photo of your receipt and it quietly builds a history of what you actually paid for each item, over time. The next time a yellow tag promises you a “half price” deal, you don't have to trust it or dismiss it. You can check it against what you normally pay. A genuine special will stand out. A phantom one won't survive contact with your own data.
It turns the whole dynamic around. Instead of the supermarket telling you what a good price is, you decide, with evidence. That's not being cynical about specials. That's just refusing to shop blind.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are supermarket “specials” always real discounts?
No. A genuine special lowers the price you would otherwise pay. But with “was/now” pricing, a retailer can raise a price for a short period and then advertise a “discount” back down to roughly the original price. In May 2026 the Federal Court found that Coles did exactly this, ruling that 13 of the 14 “Down Down” price tickets it examined conveyed misleading discount claims.
What is “was/now” pricing?
It is a promotion that shows a higher “was” price crossed out next to a lower “now” price, implying you are saving money. It is legal and common. It becomes misleading when the “was” price was not the genuine regular selling price, for example because it was only in place for a short time before the “special” began.
What did the Federal Court actually decide in the Coles case?
On 14 May 2026 the Federal Court found that Coles contravened sections 18(1) and 29(1)(i) of the Australian Consumer Law. The decisive point was how long the “was” price had been in place: a “was” price can be misleading even when the product genuinely sold at that price, if it was only held briefly before the discount. Penalties have not yet been decided.
How can I tell if a discount is genuine?
Check the price against what the item normally sells for, not just the crossed-out “was” price on the tag. Compare unit prices rather than headline prices, and be sceptical of items that seem to be on special every week. The most reliable method is to track prices yourself, so you have a record the store does not control. Scanning your receipts into an app like Alydo builds that history automatically.
Why track prices myself instead of trusting the store?
Because you are the only person with a complete record of what you personally pay. Shelf tags reset every week and rely on you remembering the regular price, which is precisely what a phantom discount depends on. A personal price history removes the guesswork and shows at a glance whether today’s “half price” is a real saving.
Tired of guessing whether a “special” is genuine? Try Alydo free. Scan a receipt and start building the price history the supermarket hopes you never keep.