Economics | Market definition

For the purposes of merger analysis, a market is defined in section 50(6) as follows:

In this section

market means a market for goods or services in:
(a) Australia; or
(b) a State; or
(c) a Territory; or
(d) a region of Australia.

The issue of market definition considered in a number of significant decisions, most recently by the High Court in Air New Zealand Ltd v Australian Competition and Consumer Commission [2017] HCA 21

The seminal definition of 'the market' in Australia is contained in the decision of the Trade Practices Tribunal in this case (at 190)

[from ALR 517]: '... the identificaiton of markets must be the essential first step in assessment of present competition and likely competitive effects. In our view the usefulness of the "market" con cept goes beyond the determination of market concentration ot the identificaiton of rivarous relationships between sellers. ...

We take the concept of a market to be basically a very simple idea. A market is the area of close competition between firms or, putting it a little differently, the field of rivalry between them. (If there is no close competition there is of course a monopolistic market.) Within the bounds of a market there is substitution-substitution between one product and another, and between one source of supply and another, in response to changing prices. So a market is the field of actual and potential transactions between buyers and sellers amongst whom there can be strong substitution, at least in the long run, if given a sufficient price incentive. Let us suppose that the price of one supplier goes up. Then on the demand side buyers may switch their patronage from this firm’s product to another, or from this geographic source of supply to another. As well, on the supply side, sellers can adjust their production plans, substituting one product for another in their output mix, or substituting one geographic source of supply for another. Whether such substitution is feasible or likely depends ultimately on customer attitudes, technology, distance, and cost and price incentives.

It is the possibilities of such substitution which set the limits upon a firm’s ability to “give less and charge more”. Accordingly, in determining the outer boundaries of the market we ask a quite simple but fundamental question: If the firm were to 'give less and charge more' would there be, to put the matter colloquially, much of a reaction? And if so, from whom? In the language of economics the question is this: From which products and which activities could we expect a relatively high demand or supply response to price change, i.e. a relatively high cross-elasticity of demand or cross-elasticity of supply?

In the context of Air Cargo price fixing litigation the issue of whether or not the relevant market for air cargo was a market 'in Australia'. The High Court unanimously concluded that it was, even though the 'switching' decision in relation to the cargo took place outside Australia. Importantly, a market can be a market in Australia even though it includes other locations. See Air New Zealand Ltd v Australian Competition and Consumer Commission [2017] HCA 21

Chief Justice Kiefel, Justice Bell and Justice Keane

[para 12] ... a market, within the meaning of the TPA, is a notional facility which accommodates rivalrous behaviour involving sellers and buyers

[para 14] 'Section 4E of the TPA proceeds upon the express footing that, notwithstanding the abstract nature of the concept of a market, it is possible to locate the market where the competition protected by the TPA occurs in Australia.  Reconciling the abstract notion of a market with the concrete notion of location, so that they work coherently, presents something of a challenge.  Particularly is this so because "competition" describes a process rather than a situation.  But given that the TPA regulates the conduct of commerce, it is tolerably clear that the task of attributing to the abstract concept of a market a geographical location in Australia is to be approached as a practical matter of business.  It is important that any analysis of the competitive processes involved in the supply of a service is not divorced from the commercial context of the conduct in question' [footnotes omitted]

[para 15] 'It was common ground between the parties that a market in Australia does not cease to be so located because it encompasses other places as well.'

Having set out the meaning of market for purposes of the Act, their Honours identified the issue as being:

[para 15] ... whether the rivalrous behaviour – in the course of which suppliers and acquirers might be matched – occurred in Australia, whether or not it also occurred elsewhere.

Their Honours noted that the primary judge had 'treated the place where the ultimate choice of airline was effected (referred to in the courts below as "the switching decision") as the location of the market' (para 22) and that, as this occurred in Hong Kong, SIngapore and Indonesia, there was not a relevant market in Australia, The place where the contracts of carriage were made was, in his Honour's view, decisive (para 22).

Their Honours considered that the primary judge's approach placed too much significance on the fact that 'substitution or switching may occur outside Australia' (para 23). The primary judge had relied on the Tribunal's decision in QCMA regarding substitutability; their Honours, however, considered that he had placed too much weight on the Tribunal's references to substitutability. In that case, the Tribunal stated that a market is:

'... the field of actual and potential transactions between buyers and sellers amongst whom there can be strong substitution … if given a sufficient price incentive' (reproduced in para 24)

Their Honours noted, however, that the Tribunal 'did not say that substitutability will be the defining feature of a market in every case' (para 25).

[para 33] ... the primary judge's findings establish that the airlines conducted their businesses in a way which recognised the economic reality that Australia was not merely the end of the line for their air cargo services but was also a vital source of demand for those services from customers who were regarded as important to the profitability of their businesses. As a practical matter of business, the rivalrous behaviour in the course of which the matching of supply with demand occurred was in a market which, speaking geographically – as s 4E of the TPA requires – included Australia; and that was so even if the market might also have been said to be in Singapore, Hong Kong or Indonesia. [emphasis added]

[para 34] As noted above, a practical focus on the issue is required because the TPA operates upon those engaged in commerce. The airlines were actively engaged in attempting to capture the demand for services emanating from shippers in Australia as an integral part of their business. The airlines' deliberate and rivalrous pursuit of orders emanating from Australian shippers was compelling evidence that they were in competition with each other in a market that was in Australia.' [footnote omitted]

Justice Nettle

[para 44] In international commerce, the place of entry into a contract of purchase and sale may be entirely fortuitous and, hence, essentially irrelevant to the location of the geographic market in which goods and services are offered and purchased.  Likewise here, at least in those instances where Australian customers were directly involved in making the so-called switching decisions, the place of execution of those decisions could not be determinative and was no more important than the rivalrous behaviour of the airlines to which the decision-makers were subject in Australia.

Justice Gordon

[Emphasis added throughout]

'Market identification is not a task undertaken at large, or in a vacuum. The task, and the extent of the task, are tailored to the conduct at issue and the statutory terms governing the contravention. The need to identify the market arises only in the context of determining whether the conduct constitutes a particular contravention of the TPA. That is, the question of whether there is a market “in Australia” is to be asked and answered in the statutory context in which that question arises. It is not to be asked or answered in isolation from that context or by looking only at what appears in s 4E of the TPA.' [para 57]

'The first step is to identify “precisely what it is that is said to have been done in contravention of the section”. As has been rightly said in the Federal Court of Australia, the court begins with the problem at hand and asks “what market identification best assists the assessment of the conduct and its asserted anti-competitive attributes”. Identifying a market is a “focusing process” which is “to be undertaken with a view to assessing whether the substantive criteria for the particular contravention in issue are satisfied, in the commercial context the subject of analysis” …' [para 58]

'That approach recognises that the concept of a “market” is “not susceptible of precise comprehensive definition”. It recognises that market identification is an economic tool, or instrumental concept, that uses and integrates those legal and economic concepts best adapted to analyse the asserted anticompetitive conduct. It recognises that market identification is “not an exact physical exercise to identify a physical feature of the world” and that there is often little or no utility in debating or identifying “the precise physical metes and bounds of a market”. It recognises that market identification is “not a physical thing, or essence, which can be identified in a manner divorced from the relevant context”. And it recognises that market identification depends upon the issues for determination – the impugned conduct and the statutory provision proscribing anti-competitive behaviour that the conduct is said to contravene.' [para 59]

'That is not to say that a market can be identified arbitrarily. It must be based on findings of fact. "The premise of that proposition”, as the Full Court of the Federal Court said in Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, is that the identified market “has economic and commercial reality":

"It must accordingly not be artificial or contrived. Economists frequently construct economic models to analyse complex commercial or economic events or scenarios. But a model is unlikely to be a useful analytical tool if based on unrealistic assumptions that materially depart from the real world facts and circumstances involving commercial behaviour in which the events to be analysed occur."' [para 60]

'The identification of the market must therefore "accurately [and] realistically describe and reflect the interactions between, and perceptions and actions of, the relevant actors or participants in the alleged market, that is, the commercial community involved”. [para 61]

Embedded in the “focusing process” is the recognition that the substantive criteria for a particular contravention in issue will depend on the particular statutory provisions. That process “may lead to the drawing of different lines in different circumstances depending upon the purpose of the provision in question”. In turn, that process may “lead to different market definitions in relation to the same industry” or even different markets within the same case. That potential was recognised more than 25 years ago by Professor Brunt, who wrote that “[t]here can be more than one ‘relevant market’ for a particular case, in the sense of markets that will attract liability”. There is nothing odd about that conclusion. As Professor Brunt pointed out, it reflects the fact that market identification “is but a tool to facilitate a proper orientation for the analysis of market power and competitive processes – and should be taken only a sufficient distance to achieve the legal decision”. [para 62]

'Recognising that market identification is an economic tool has other important consequences. Economics is a social science and “does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique of thinking, which helps its possessor draw correct conclusions”.' [para 63]

'The nature of economics as a social science is often highlighted by the existence of conflicting expert opinions about the identification of a relevant market. Deane J acknowledged as much in Queensland Wire Industries Pty Ltd v Broken Hill Proprietary Co Ltd, when his Honour said:

“The economy is not divided into an identifiable number of discrete markets into one or other of which all trading activities can be neatly fitted. One overall market may overlap other markets and contain more narrowly defined markets which may, in their turn, overlap, the one with one or more others.”' [para 64]

'When a court is required to draw its own conclusions about market identification, it is therefore inherent in that task – being one founded on economics as a social science – that the court will be required to make “value judgments about which there is some room for legitimate differences of opinion”. As a result, “[m]arket identification and definition is not an exact science. It is rooted in the analysis of commerce as an aspect of human behaviour”.' [para 65]

In the context of mergers, Emmett J set out the relevant principles in his trial judgment in Metcash (at para 151) [emphasis in original] - in this case the functional market definition was particularly important.

[151] Defining a market delineates an area of close competition relevant to a firm’s products and conduct, and involves identifying the relevant competitive constraints on firms, so that the competitive implications of the conduct in question can be assessed.  Substitution, either in demand or in supply, defines that area of competition.  If two products are substitutes, an increase in the price of one relative to the price of the other, all other things being equal, results in a decrease in the sales of the first product and an increase in sales of the second product.  It is necessary to identify close substitutes, since close substitutes will impose competitive discipline on a firm and its prices.  Substitution can be inferred from quantitative or qualitative information.  In quantitative terms, 'substitutability' is captured by measuring elasticity of demand and cross-elasticity of demand.  The former provides a measure of overall constraint on prices.  The latter provides a measure of substitutability between or among different products.  The scenario in which a large number of consumers of a product would switch to a similar product in response to even a small increase in the price of the first product, meaning that any effort to increase the price of the first product would be doomed to failure, is an example of high cross-elasticity of demand between the two products.

[His Honour then discusses supply-side substitution, as provided for in the merger guidelines]

[153] A critical market definition test is the hypothetical monopolist test.  That test involves determining whether a hypothetical monopolist supplier in a market could profitably impose a small but significant non-transitory increase in price, most commonly between five and ten per cent, for the supply of relevant products, or whether substitution by buyers or suppliers would make such an increase unprofitable.  If the hypothetical monopolist supplier could profitably impose such an increase, to which I will refer as a relevant increase in price, the market is correctly defined. 

[154] However, if the hypothetical monopolist supplier could not impose a relevant increase in price, a smaller and smaller market must be postulated until a positive answer can be given to the question of whether it could impose the increase profitably.  The relevant market is identified as the smallest area, in terms of either product or geographic space, over which a hypothetical monopolist could profitably impose a relevant increase in price.  If there are several products that compete within the same market, it is the cumulative switching to all those alternative products by consumers that determines whether close demand-side substitutes exist.  If the cumulative effect is sufficient to make the relevant increase in price unprofitable, all close substitutes would be included in the market, even if the consumer switching to each individual product in isolation might be insufficient to make the relevant increase in price unprofitable.

...

Market dimensions

[156] Markets can be defined in terms of product, function and geography (see AGL at [378]). ...  Occasionally, time and consumer dimensions are used ...

[157] Definition in terms of function refers to the link in the chain of production for a specific product.  Different functional levels, such as manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing, for a specific product, are often complements rather than substitutes.  Accordingly, care must be taken to ensure that different functional levels are not combined into a single product market in cases where hypothetical monopolists at separate functional levels could each profitably impose a relevant increase in price.  If they could do so, combining the functional levels into a single relevant market may violate the principle of identifying the smallest market under the hypothetical monopolist test.

[158] The identification of a relevant market by functional dimension requires consideration of the differences between horizontal economic relationships and vertical economic relationships.  Horizontal economic relationships generally involve rivalry, whereas vertical economic relationships are generally co-operative.  Generally, horizontal interactions are characterised by rivalry among entities selling the same or similar products to the same or similar customers.  Such entities attempt to win custom from their competitors.  In contrast, vertical interactions are generally characterised by co-operation among entities engaged in a supply and acquisition relationship.  That is to say, such entities are engaged in different functions along a supply chain and would ordinarily work collaboratively to win sales at each level in that chain.  In the Australian grocery industry, the self-supplying major supermarket chains, such as Woolworths and Coles, are often described as vertically integrated.  Further, there are vertical relationships between Metcash, on the one hand, and the IGA retailers, on the other hand.

[159] Because the different functional markets in any distribution chain for a given product are generally considered to be economic complements, rather than substitutes, in the supply of the product, whether goods or services, the functional market concept is quite different in nature from the product market concept and the geographic market concept.

Justice Allsop (at 429):

Market definition is not an exact physical exercise to identify a physical feature of the world; nor is it the enquiry after the nature of some form of essential existence. Rather, it is the recognition and use of an economic tool or instrumental concept related to market power, constraints on power and the competitive process which is best adapted to analyse the asserted anti-competitive conduct.

Justice Finkelstein (president), Grant Latta and Professor Round

[1009] ... to a businessperson, a market is a place or area where goods may be sold or, more broadly, where there are people who are sufficiently aware of a firm’s product to consider buying it. This concept of a market concentrates its attention on buyers rather than sellers.

[1010] We are not here concerned with the businessperson’s understanding of a market but rather with the analytical definitions developed by economists. Several classical economists have offered definitions. Cournot defined a market as: “The entire territory of which parts are so united by the relations of unrestricted commerce that prices there take the same level throughout, with ease and rapidity” ...

[1011] This economic (or relevant) market, then, consists of groups of buyers and groups of sellers in a geographic region who seek each other out as a source of supply of, or as customers for, products. The interaction of the buyers and sellers determines the price for the products.

[1012] We have not referred to a “group” of products because implicit in the classic economists’ definition of a market is the assumption that there is only a single homogeneous product and that the firms in the market produce perfect substitutes.

[1013] In the real world it is not only homogeneous products of rival sellers that affect price; price is also affected by the products of rival sellers that are close substitutes. Hence it is necessary to expand the definition of a market to include not only identical goods but also close substitutes.

[1014] The output of the process of defining the relevant market – the identification of the participating firms, a description of the products exchanged and the borders within which the exchange occurs – is critical to an assessment of the behaviour of firms in the market (ie whether or not they impose competitive constraints upon one another) and, importantly, whether or not a firm has, or a group of firms have, power to control price or reduce competition (ie to shift the price away from that which would be obtained in a competitive market, namely the marginal cost of the product).

[1015] In QCMA (at 517), the Tribunal defined a market to be a "field of rivalry" between firms in which there is "substitution between one product and another, and between one source of supply and another, in response to changing prices."

[1016] Section 4E was introduced in 1977 to give statutory recognition to the concept of substitution. It provides that "for the purposes of this Act, unless the contrary intention appears, 'market' means a market in Australia and, when used in relation to any goods or services, includes a market for those goods or services and other goods or services that are substitutable for, or otherwise competitive with, the first-mentioned goods or services."

[1017] It is often difficult, and sometimes impossible, to define with any precision the relevant dimensions (product, geographic, functional and temporal) of a market. On occasion, it can be particularly difficult to describe the relevant product market and its geographic borders. The process often involves judgments as to matters of degree that can be difficult to measure.

[1018] As regards the product market, the notion of substitution refers on the demand side, to a customer’s practical ability to switch from one product to another and, on the supply side, to the capacity of a supplier to switch production from one product to another. There are various conventional approaches to determining substitutability. [emphasis added]

[1019] The first significant approach developed by the courts and leading economists in the US is the “reasonable interchangeability of use or the cross-[price] elasticity of demand between product itself and substitutes for it”: Brown Shoe Co. v United States 370 US 294 (1962) at [15]. Cross-price elasticity of demand measures the extent to which consumers will change their consumption of a product in response to a price change in another product. A high cross-price elasticity value suggests that products are good substitutes and are probably in the same product market.

[1020] Reasonable interchangeability of use is established by looking at actual and potential buyer substitution patterns. Relevant evidence will include product characteristics (including differences in grade or quality), price differences (including price trends), past buyer responses, the views of firms regarding who their competitors are, and the existence or absence of different distribution channels. [emphasis added]

[1021] On the supply side, cross-price elasticity is also relevant. Products will be in the same market if a firm can readily switch production from one product to another. What is important is the ease with which the switch can take place. It may be immaterial that consumers do not regard the products as substitutes, that a price difference exists, or that the prices are not closely correlated. [emphasis added]

[1022] The geographic market is the area of effective competition in which sellers and buyers operate. What is relevant, as a starting point, are actual sales patterns, the location of customers and the place where sales take place, and any geographical boundaries that limit trade. But it is not sufficient to measure only historical and current market behaviour. It is also necessary to consider whether customers would readily turn to more remote suppliers in response to a price increase by local suppliers or whether remote suppliers would choose to enter the local market.

[1023] In the United States, geographic markets are occasionally defined based on shipment flows. ...

[1024] A more recent (and increasingly popular) approach is to define a market as a group of products and a corresponding geographic area within which a hypothetical monopolist would be able to raise prices profitably. ...

[1026] The hypothetical monopolist test has been adopted by the ACCC. ... [emphasis added]

[1027] The test works this way. One looks at the effect of a price increase on a single product. If so many buyers would shift to alternative products that the monopolist would find the price increase to be unprofitable, the group of products is too narrow to constitute the market. The market should include all those products for which the hypothetical monopolist’s price increase would be profitable.

[1028] The factors that the guidelines use to determine whether the test is satisfied are conventional. The factors include buyers’ perceptions, similarities and differences in price movements between different sets of products over a period of years, similarities or differences in product characteristics and evidence of sellers' perceptions.

[1029] The test for the existence of significant market power is phrased in terms of the magnitude of the price increase that could be imposed by the hypothetical monopolist. It is generally accepted by both US and Australian regulators that a price increase is significant in size and length if it is at least 5% (sometimes 10%) and for at least one year, but there is flexibility in both the magnitude and the time period. It should be noted that these are not tolerance levels for anti-competitive price increases; they are merely a benchmark for assessing substitution. [emphasis added] ...

[1031] Geographic markets are defined in an analogous manner. One identifies tentatively a small geographic area such that a hypothetical firm that is the only present producer of the relevant product or service is not able to profitably impose a price increase. If the product or service could be obtained elsewhere, an attempt to raise the price could not be profitable and the tentative geographic area would be too small. The geographic area is expanded until the hypothetical monopolist’s price increase would be profitable.

[1032] The hypothetical monopolist definition was designed to satisfy three objectives: (1) To connect the relevant market in antitrust case law to economic policy justifications in merger cases; (2) To arrive at a standardised definition of a market; and (3) To develop a test that fell within existing jurisprudence that relied on the product and geographic dimensions of a market.

[1033] The hypothetical monopolist test has its critics. ... The test is, in essence, a "thought experiment". ... But the trend is towards acceptance of the test ... not only in merger cases, but wherever it is necessary for competition purposes to define the boundaries of a relevant market ...

[1034] Notwithstanding the criticisms, or in spite of it, the hypothetical monopolist test has gained currency in Australia ... [emphasis added]

Cited with approval in ACCC v Flight Centre Limited (No 2) [2013] FCA 1313 (6 December 2013) [para 108]

[para 378] The concept of market describes, in a metaphorical way, an area or space of economic activity whose dimensions are function, product and geography. A market may be defined functionally by reference to wholesale or retail activities or a combination of both. The concept of product encompasses goods and services and, having regard to the definition of “market” in s 4E, includes the range of goods or services which are substitutable for or competitive with each other.

[para 379] The process of market definition was expounded in QCMA where the Tribunal defined “market” as the area of close competition between firms and observed that substitution occurs within a market between one product and another, and between one source of supply and another in response to changing prices (at 190):

So a market is the field of actual and potential transactions between buyers and sellers amongst whom there can be strong substitution, at least in the long run, if given a sufficient price incentive.

In Re Tooth & Co Ltd (1979) 39 FLR 1, the Tribunal identified the task of market analysis as involving:

1. Identification of the relevant area or areas of close competition.

2. Application of the principle that competition may proceed through substitution of supply source as well as product.

3. Delineation of a market which comprehends the maximum range of business activities and the widest geographic area within which, if given a sufficient economic incentive, buyers can switch to a substantial extent from one source of supply to another and sellers can switch to a substantial extent from one production plan to another.

4. Consideration of long run substitution possibilities rather than shortrun and transitory situations recognising that the market is the field of actual or potential rivalry between firms.

5. Selection of market boundaries as a matter of degree by identification of such a break in substitution possibilities that firms within the boundary would collectively possess substantial market power so that if operating as a cartel they could raise prices or offer lesser terms without being substantially undermined by the incursions of rivals.

6. Acceptance of the proposition that the field of substitution is not necessarily homogeneous but may contain submarkets in which competition is especially close or especially immediate. This is subject to the qualification that competitive relationships in key submarkets may have a wide effect upon the functioning of the market as a whole.

7. Identification of the market as multidimensional involving product, functional level, space and time.

The main issue on appeal was whether the relevant conduct occurred in a 'market in Australia'. The majority of the court adopted an exapnsive approach. A good overview of the decision can be found here:

• Nicolas Taylor and Prudence Smith, 'Australia Court Broadens "Market" Definition in Australia' (Jones Day Antitrust Alert, May 2016)

Justice Wilcox

A market is the field of activity in which buyers and sellers interact, and the identification of market boundaries requires consideration of both the demand and supply side. The ideal definition of a market must take into account substitution possibilities in both consumption and production. The existence of price differentials between different products, reflecting differences in quality or other characteristics of the products, does not by itself place the products in different markets. The test of whether or not there are different markets is based on what happens (or would happen) on either the demand or the supply side in response to a change in relative price.

Tribunal

[at 18,196-18,197] '… it may be helpful if we summarise briefly the principles we have had in mind in approaching the task of market delineation. …

First, and most generally, we seek to identify the area or areas of close competition of relevance for the applications.

Second, such competition may proceed not just through the substitution of one product for another in use (substitution in demand) but also through the substitution of one source of supply for another in production or distribution (substitution in supply). The market should comprehend the maximum range of business activities and the widest geographic area within which, if given a sufficient economic incentive, buyers can switch to a substantial extent from one source of supply to another and sellers can switch to a substantial extent from one production plan to another. In an economist’s language, both cross-elasticity of demand and cross-elasticity of supply are relevant.

Third, there is the matter of time perspective. It is plain that the longer the period allowed for likely customer and supplier adjustments to economic incentives, the wider the market delineated. In our judgment, given the policy objectives of the legislation, it serves no useful purpose to focus attention upon a short-run, transitory situation. We consider we should be basically concerned with substitution possibilities in the longer run. This does not mean we seek to prophesy the shape of the future—to speculate upon how community tastes, or institutions, or technology might change. Rather, we ask of the evidence what is likely to happen to patterns of consumption and production were existing suppliers to raise price or, more generally, offer a poorer deal. For the market is the field of actual or potential rivalry between firms.

Fourth, all competition or substitution does not cease at the outer boundaries of the market; the economy as a whole is a network of substitution possibilities in consumption and production; competition is a matter of [18,197] degree. Rather, at the extremities of the market, there is such a break in substitution possibilities that firms within its boundaries would collectively possess substantial market power: were they to join forces as a cartel, they would be able to raise prices or offer a poorer deal without their market being substantially undermined by the incursions of rivals.

Fifth, within the bounds of the market, substitution possibilities may be more or less intense, and more or less immediate: the field of substitution is not necessarily homogeneous but may contain within it sub-markets wherein competition is especially close or especially immediate. There may be, too, certain key sub-markets such that their competitive relationships have a wider effect upon the functioning of the market as a whole. In these matters we have found that the identification of relevant sub-markets may be rather helpful in clarifying how competition works.

Finally, as is commonly recognized, the market is a multi-dimensional concept—with dimensions of product, functional level, space, and time. Taking (as just explained) the longer run time perspective as given, we have found it helpful in our market identification task to proceed in step by step fashion dealing with each of these questions: What is the relevant product? What are the appropriate functional levels? What is the geographic scope of the market?'

Rhonda L Smith, 'Market definition and substitution options' (2014) 22(2) Competition and Consumer Law Journal 105

Alex Sundakov, 'Economic(s) Matters - What is the magic of market definition?' (2014) 22 AJCCL 162

Stephen Corones, 'Market Definition in the age of the internet' (2010) 38 Australian Business Law Review 309

Justice Greenwood, ‘Recent Developments in Market Definition’, 2010 Competition Law Conference, Sydney, 29 May 2010

Rhonda Smith, 'Market definition: Going, going, gone? Developments in the United States' (2010) 18 Competition and Consumer Law Journal 119

Daniel Clarry, 'Contemporary approaches to market definition: Taking account of international markets in Australian competition law' (2009) 37 Australian Business Law Review 143

T Leuner, 'Time and the dimensions of substitutability' (2008) 36 ABLR 327

Brenda Marshall, 'Mechanics of market definition' (2007) 13(2) The National Legal Eagle

Beaton-Wells, Proof of Antitrust Markets in Australia, Federation Press (2003)

Rhonda L Smith and David K Round, 'When is a Market a Market?' (2003) 31 ABLR 412

Lynden Griggs, 'A Teleological Approach To Market Definition - Has It Led To Single Product Market Definition?' [2002] UNDAULawRw 4; (2002) 4 The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review 77

Martin Algie & Brian Kewley (1998) Competition Law Market Definition in Practice (First published John Libby & Co 1997)
Internet publication by the Publication Trust, 2008
(available online; includes useful comprehensive analysis of cases and compreensive bibliography)

David Brewster, 'Market Definition and Substitutability - Australian Courts Continue to Struggle with Part IV of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth)' (1996) 12 QUTLJ 246-263

George Hay, 'Market definition and market dominance: issues from the Davids/QIW case' (1995) 3 Competition & Consumer Law Journal 1.

Megan Richardson and Philip Williams (eds), The Law and the Market (1995) Federation Press

Maureen Brunt, 'Market Definition Issues in Australian and New Zealand Trade Practices Litigation' (1990) 18 Australian Business Law Review 86-128