You and Your Business

1. How many markets (service or product markets) is your business involved in, whether it be for purchases or sales?
5 1
7 2-5
10 6-10
10 10+

2. Looking at your main product or service market, what is your business's share of that market?
2 0-10%
7 10-25%
10 25-40%
10 40%+

3. In how many markets (be it for purchases or for sales) does your business have a market share of 10%+?
5 0
10 1-5
10 6-10
10 10+

4. Looking at your business's main activities, how many actual/potential competitors do you believe that you have?
10 1
8 2-5
5 6-10
0 10+

5. How would you describe your main markets?
10 stagnant
8increasingly less competitive
5 reasonably competitive
2 highly competitive

6. How many staff does your company employ?
2 0-50
7 51-100
10 101-1000
10 1001+

7. Focusing on profitability, would you say that in recent years your company has been:
10 increasing profitability year on year?
10 holding a steady profit margin year on year?
5 making smaller profits year on year?
1 consistently breaking even or making a loss?

Market Interaction

8. Your business has entered into how many agreements in respect of one or more of the following topics:

• fixing prices
• sharing of markets or territories
• levels of sales or production
• terms and condition of sale/business
• trading strategy
• concerted actions against third party competitors
• tendering strategy?

9. Is your business party to any joint ventures?
0 no
10 yes - with competitors
8 yes - with companies engaged in the same industry but who are not competitors
6 yes - with companies engaged in other industries or in the same industry but at a different level of the supply chain

10. Is your business party to any trade association?
0 no
10 yes - and it includes nearly all players in the market
8 yes - but it is only open to a selected few
6 yes - but it rarely meets and it is largely ineffectual

11. Does your business exchange information with competitors either directly or indirectly?
0 no
10 yes - on prices or costs
10 yes - on other normally confidential information
5 yes - on market conditions or developments which are in the public domain

Trading Strategy

12. How would you describe your pricing strategy?
2 in our market, prices are regulated or we set our pricing levels on the basis of cost plus a pre-set profit margin
7 we tend to track the prices set by competitors
7 we try to out do our competitors by undercutting them
10 we seek to price on the basis of what the market is willing to pay

13. Do you ever offer preferential terms to specific customers or suppliers relative to the terms you usually offer?
0 no
3yes - if we can justify such preferential terms by reference to cost savings which are generated due to e.g. a customer taking a larger volume of purchases than other customers
3 yes - and they are not always justified by underlying cost savings
10 yes - all the time: we do not have a 'usual' pricing policy and set prices on an ad hoc basis

14. Does your business ever refuse to supply existing customers?
0 no
2 yes - but only if the customer does not pay its bills, does not pay its bills on time, or if the service or the product in question is not available
10 yes - and not just due to reasons of late/non payment of bills or service/product unavailability
10 yes - we only supply our own group companies

15. Does your business ever make the sale of one product/service conditional on the customer also taking another product/service?
10 yes - all the time
10 yes - occasionally but if only sales of one of the 'tied' products/services need a boost
8 yes - but only because one product/service cannot be used without the other
0 no - never

16. Does your business have agreements (even informal ones) with other players in the market containing one or more of the following terms?
1 exclusive purchase or sale
1 non-compete or non-solicitation clauses
1 restrictions on customers to whom the product/service can be resold or the users to which the product/service can be put
1 binding recommended resale prices
1 suggested resale prices
1 export bans
1 territorial restrictions
1 minimal purchasing obligations
1 binding terms to protect intellectual property rights

Competition Law Compliance

17. How aware is your business of competition law (EU or UK)?
3 all staff are fully aware of competition law and the need to comply with it
7 some key staff (not just legal staff) are fully aware of competition law and the need to comply with it
10 our in-house legal team (but no other staff) is fully aware of competition law and the need to comply with it
10 there is no awareness or there is some awareness but nothing has been done in or by the business to ensure compliance with competition law

18. Does your business have in place a competition law compliance programme?
2 all staff are fully aware of competition law and the need to comply with it
6 some key staff (not just legal staff) are fully aware of competition law and the need to comply with it
10 our in-house legal team (but no other staff) is fully aware of competition law and the need to comply with it
10 there is no awareness or there is some awareness but nothing has been done in or by the business to ensure compliance with competition law

19. Have any of your markets or any of the company's competitors in those markets ever been investigated by a competition authority?
10 yes - often
10 yes - sometimes
8 yes - once or twice
0 no

20. Has your own business ever been subject to a complaint or investigated for an alleged breach of competition law?
0 no
5 yes - once but we were found innocent
10 yes - once and we were found guilty
10 yes - we have been the subject of a number of complaints and investigations