Glossary (Body of Knowledge on Infrastructure Regulation)

Essential Facility:: A facility or infrastructure component viewed as necessary if a competitor is to enter a market. If potentially competitive firms do not have access to the component, the cost of duplicating the component might be viewed as prohibitive. Of course, automatically requiring incumbent companies to provide competitors access to that component at very low prices can serve as a disincentive for competitors to initially invest in creating those facilities. See efficient components pricing rule (ECPR).

Interactive Glossary