Will Coles get its just desserts?

Coles was found guilty last year of misleading consumers with the falsely labelled products. Source: AAP

COLES could be facing fines of more than $5 million for misleading consumers over the freshness of its bread.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is seeking fines of at least $4-5 million over false labelling which advertised bakery products as "baked today, sold today" and "freshly baked in-store".

The retailer was found guilty in June last year of misleading consumers with the falsely labelled products, which were found to have been partially baked in European countries including Denmark and Germany before being frozen and transported to Australia.

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In a penalty hearing in the Federal Court in Melbourne yesterday, the ACCC argued that a large fine was appropriate due to the size of the company, scale of conduct and consumer reach, Fairfax Media reported.

But lawyers for Coles reportedly argued that "just because we're big, we shouldn't get hit with a record fine", claiming that continuing strong sales showed the consumer "doesn't care".

In a statement, a Coles spokesman said Coles was "proud of the quality of our bread, whether baked from scratch in-store or 'par-baked' by our Australian suppliers and finished in our ovens".

"In talking to customers about our bread range we did not deliberately set out to mislead anybody, but we absolutely accept that we could have done a better job in explaining how these products are made," he said.

He added that Coles' packaging and in-store signage had been changed last year to "improve our message to customers".

The case followed a year-long investigation from the ACCC triggered by former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, who discovered his "freshly baked" bread was made from foreign ingredients in Ireland.