Greens propose fines for supermarkets charging 'excessive' prices

The Green Party wants supermarkets to face fines of up to $10 million for charging "unreasonable" prices for groceries, under a new election policy aimed at tackling "price gouging." The proposed Member's Bill would make it illegal for supermarkets to charge prices deemed as excessive compared with the cost of supplying a product, plus a reasonable profit margin. Party leader Chlöe Swarbrick said New Zealanders were paying too much at the checkout while supermarkets were "raking in excess profits of a million dollars a day". "While Luxon’s Government has talked tough, prices at the check-out have continued to rise," Swarbrick said. "Parliament can now actually do something meaningful in its final few weeks before the election by supporting this common-sense Bill, to reduce New Zealanders’ bills. "At the end of the day, surely, that’s why we’re all there in the first place." The Commerce (Excessive Pricing in Retail Grocery Industry) Amendment Bill would form part of the party's affordable food election policy, which was due to be announced in full next month. It would be placed in the members’ ballot by Green MP and consumer affairs spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March. Under the proposed legislation, the Commerce Commssion could apply to the courts if it believed a supermarket had breached the ban. The courts would ultimately be responsible for deciding whether prices were excessive. Supermarkets would also be required to keep records of their pricing and provide them to the commission upon request. "Breaches would carry penalties of up to $10 million, three times the value of the commercial gain, or 10% of turnover," Menéndez March said. "This is consistent with Australia’s approach, which brought in the same ban on 1 July this year with the same penalties we are proposing here, following its own reviews into supermarket market dominance." Swarbrick said restrictions on unreasonable prices had previously existed in New Zealand under the Commerce Act 1975 before being removed during deregulation in the 1980s. The proposed bill comes after the Government introduced the <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/05/13/bill-to-crack-down-on-misleading-pricing-introduced/">Fair Trading Amendment Bill</a> to Parliament earlier this year, aimed at strengthening consumer protections and cracking down on misleading pricing. It is at select committee stage.