Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

The Treasurer has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) In the context of competition assessment, market definition is a purposive process involving the specific facts of the particular matter. In some cases local market definitions are appropriate whereas in others, a broader market might be suitable. For this reason it is not possible to answer the question of whether an entity has a substantial share of the relevant local market in the abstract.

(2) Chapter 3 of the 2010 ACCC Petrol Monitoring Report outlines unleaded petrol retailers' share of the volume of retail petrol sales. The below table has been extracted from page 39 of that report.

Whilst the ACCC does not publish comparable share of sales data on automotive LPG, the ACCC understands that Coles' and Woolworths' shares of the volume of automotive LPG sales are smaller than their share of the volume of retail petrol sales.

Table: Share of volume of retail petrol sales by brand (per cent): 2002–03 to 2009–10

Source:    2007 ACCC petrol inquiry report and ACCC analysis based on data obtained from firms monitored through the ACCC's monitoring process

*Note:   2009–10 data estimated by the ACCC on the basis of information provided by the monitored companies.