Division 3.2

United Kingdom

Please explain the definition of the relevant geographical market or markets that in your opinion should form the basis of the Commission's analysis. In your reply, please give reasons for assumptions or conclusions, supported by appropriate empirical evidence^f1, and explain how the factors outlined above have been taken into account. In particular, please specify the geographical area in which the entity or entities concerned by this request are active in the relevant product market(s), and if you consider the relevant geographical market to be wider than a single Member State, give the reasons for this.

In the questions below, this (or these) definition(s) is (are) referred to as ‘the relevant geographical market(s)’.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: I.e. facts and evidence that can be independently verified. All the analyses performed must be replicable in an independent manner. In particular, in the case of providing supporting evidence stemming from empirical analysis, the applicant must provide the sources, the raw data and all the details on the specific technical steps taken in order to reach the final conclusions.

Notes on Division 3

Footnotes

f1

Where appropriate, specify also if the products are readily substitutable; perfect substitutes; less perfect substitutes or partial substitutes.

For any given product (for the purposes of this definition, the term ‘product’ refers to products or services) there is a variety of substitutes. This variety includes all the substitutes which could be envisaged for the product in question, that is to say, all the products which, to a greater or lesser extent, will fulfil the consumer's requirements. The range of substitutes extends from very exact (or perfect) substitutes (products to which consumers would turn immediately, for example, in the event of a very small increase in the price of the product in question) to very inexact (or imperfect) substitutes (products to which consumers would turn only in the event of a very sharp increase in the price of the product in question).

When it defines the relevant market, the Commission considers only products which can be readily substituted for the products in question. Readily substitutable products are those to which consumers would turn in response to a modest but significant increase in the price of the relevant product (e.g. 5 %). This permits the Commission to assess the competitive situation in the context of a relevant market comprising all the products to which consumers of the products in question would readily turn.

However, this does not mean that the Commission fails to take account of the constraints on the competitive behaviour of the entities concerned resulting from the existence of imperfect substitutes [those to which a consumer would not turn in response to a modest but significant increase in the price of the relevant product (e.g. 5 %). These effects are taken into account once the market has been defined and market share quantified.

It is consequently important for the Commission to have information on both products which can be readily substituted for the products in question and less perfect substitutes. [Example of perfect demand-side substitute: electricity produced from coal and that produced from renewable sources].

Partial substitutes are regarded as those products and services which can replace each other only within a certain geographical area, only during part of the year or only for certain uses [Example: in passenger transport, rail, underground, tram and bus would be only partially interchangeable at national level since these forms of transport coexist only within a given geographical area. However, within this area, they could be considered as perfect substitutes.]

f2

This list is not exhaustive: the applicant may refer to other factors.

f3

See the second subparagraph of Article 34(2) of Directive 2014/25/EU.

f4

This list is not exhaustive: the applicant may refer to other factors.