By Emily Bencic

Woolworths will face court today (Monday) after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleged that the company developed a strategy to reduce a $50 million short-fall in its first-half gross profits by demanding more than $60 million cash from suppliers, outside formal trading agreements. The ACCC launched the proceedings in December 2015.

The ACCC proposed the following allegations:

• Woolworths developed a strategy, approved by senior management, to urgently reduce expected significant half year gross profit shortfall by 31 December 2014.
• Woolworths  designed a scheme, referred to as “Mind the Gap” to systematically obtain payments from a group of 821 “Tier B” suppliers.

Read more here.

This story first appeared in Appliance Retailer.