monopsony

noun

1. A market situation in which there is only one buyer for a product.

   “Our next task is to consider the change in the amount of a commodity purchased when the market changes from an indefinitely large number of competing buyers to a single buying agency. This may be described as the comparison between competitive and monopsony buying, just as the corresponding comparison for selling was called the comparison between competitive and monopoly output.”

   “For purposes of evaluating monopsony cases from the standpoint of economic efficiency, it makes sense to adopt a "purpose"-oriented classification system. After all, all monopsony cases can be reduced to either a unilateral or collusive use of buying power in order to promote the interests of the buyer.”

   “In a monopsony, the buyer has power over sellers instead of the other way around. Google and Amazon aren't just powerful sellers; they're powerful buyers too. Amazon's reach in the book market gives it enormous power over publishers. Google's monopsonies over search, ads, and video translate into dominance over numerous cultural domains, most directly affecting recording artists, record labels, songwriters, music publishers, journalists, and news publishers.”

2. A buyer with disproportionate power.

   “The result is different when the resource buyer is a monopsony. The monopsony firm is a single buyer, and therefore it faces the market supply curve.”

   “If the takeover is approved, Comcast would control 20 of the top 25 cable markets,[…]. Antitrust officials will need to consider Comcast’s status as a monopsony (a buyer with disproportionate power), when it comes to negotiations with programmers, whose channels it pays to carry.”

   “Network Rail is a monopsony (the sole buyer in a particular market) and must be careful not to exploit that position.”

   “The Weyland-Yutani Corporation is an extreme form of what's known in economics as a monopsony.”