12.4 Competitive Substitution Without Bypass

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Competitive Substitution Without Bypass is the market condition in which the Governed Node Service Market substitutes one Qualified Node for another Qualified Node only when the substitute Qualified Node satisfies the same applicable obligations as the Node it replaces.

Competitive Substitution Without Bypass establishes that substitution supports resilience, provider diversity, cost discipline, operational continuity, and market competition without weakening qualification, policy, evidence, security, residency, sovereignty, service-level, or Non-Functional Characteristic requirements.

The market does not treat a substitute Node as valid merely because it performs a similar technical task, offers lower cost, has available capacity, or belongs to a preferred provider. The market recognises a substitute Node as valid only when the substitute Node satisfies the same governed function, Qualification Profile requirements, Qualification Evidence requirements, policy constraints, evidence obligations, jurisdictional constraints, residency constraints, sovereignty constraints, service-level expectations, Cost Rules, and market integrity rules.

Competitive Substitution Without Bypass protects the market from Under-Compliance. A provider does not create a valid substitute by bypassing required evidence, weakening security controls, ignoring policy obligations, reducing auditability, or performing work outside its recognised qualification.

Competitive Substitution Without Bypass also preserves traceability. The market records the original assignment basis, substitution basis, selected substitute Qualified Node, accountable Qualified Service Provider, applicable Selection Criteria, required evidence, and completed Work Performed Event.

Requirement

The Governed Node Service Market SHALL support Competitive Substitution only when the substitute Qualified Node satisfies the same applicable obligations as the Node it replaces.

Example

A Qualified Node assigned to semantic validation becomes unavailable during an FX processing window. The market selects a substitute Qualified Node only after confirming that the substitute satisfies the same governed function, Qualification Profile, Qualification Evidence, jurisdictional constraint, residency constraint, sovereignty constraint, policy obligation, Evidence Reference requirement, performance expectation, interoperability expectation, and applicable Cost Rule.