Food and Grocery Code of Conduct mandatory from 1 April 2025

The food and grocery code is now mandatory for Australia’s largest supermarkets and grocery wholesalers.

The code sets the rules for how supermarkets and wholesalers negotiate and contract with their suppliers. It requires them to have written supply agreements in place, act lawfully and in good faith towards their suppliers, and ensure suppliers do not face retribution for exercising their rights under the code. Large supermarkets and wholesalers now face significant penalties for contraventions of the updated code.

The changes, which commence on 1 April 2025, make the code mandatory for all retailers and wholesalers that earned over $5 billion from their supermarket or grocery wholesaling businesses in the previous financial year.

Suppliers to those retailers and wholesalers are automatically protected by the code.

The ACCC will now be able to issue infringement notices and take court action seeking penalties against businesses that contravene the code. For the most harmful contraventions, this includes a maximum penalty per contravention that will be the greater of $10 million, or 3 times the value of the benefit derived, or, if that value cannot be determined, 10% of the company’s turnover during the preceding 12 months.

The ACCC has also launched a new online portal for people to make anonymous reports about potential contraventions of the code.

Businesses can also continue to make reports via the ACCC’s Infocentre: Report an issue affecting your business or franchise.

Guidance on the updated code, including the ACCC’s approach to enforcement and compliance actions, is available at: Food and grocery code of conduct.