Australia’s competition watchdog, the ACCC, is nearing the beginning of a new era as the new price gouging laws against the country’s major supermarkets take effect.

Starting from July 1, the “excessive pricing prohibition” – which applies to supermarkets with more than $30 billion in revenue – will allow the ACCC to analyse what is a “reasonable” profit margin for each individual product, to determine whether it is excessively priced.

The currently set revenue threshold for this regulation only encompasses Coles and Woolworths. The other large contributors to the sector’s market share, Aldi, IGA, and Costco, currently record revenues between $10 billion and $14 billion.

“We know that grocery prices continue to be a key concern for households,” said the ACCC’s acting chair, Catriona Lowe. “The excessive pricing prohibition provides us with another tool within our broader toolkit to protect consumers and promote competition in the supermarket sector.”

There won’t be any fixed threshold for what is an excessive price, the ACCC added, with determinations set to be made after considering “all relevant circumstances”.

“We will focus our attention on products where excessive pricing is likely to cause the most harm to consumers,” Lowe said.

“We encourage consumers and suppliers to make a report to the ACCC if they have concerns that a supermarket may have excessively priced a grocery product. These reports will help us identify products that may warrant further investigation.”

The watchdog promises to make public the initial products of focus over the coming months.

Lowe said that there is “significant” public interest in the commission’s ongoing compliance work involving supermarkets

“We recognise that there is significant public interest in the ACCC’s ongoing work to ensure supermarkets act in accordance with the law,” Lowe said. “If we observe non-compliance, then we would consider the most appropriate enforcement tool to address any misconduct.”