oligopoly

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)An economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity.

   “Because of the ease of collusion, particularly price fixing, duopolies and oligopolies easily produce outcomes as bad for the general public as outright monopolies.”

   “For the sheep are falling into few and powerful hands; and these, if they have not a monopoly, have at least an oligopoly, and can keep up the price.”

   “[Thomas] More makes an antithesis between monopolium and oligopolium. We have ‘monopoly,’ but not ‘oligopoly’ (the sale by a few), and so cannot preserve the point of the sentence.”

   “An embarrassing infelicity is the use of Russianised consonants, where for six of the consonants, an additional set is made by supersigns, representing the letter h. […] The specialist offices have it all to themselves; not a 'monopoly’, but an ‘oligopoly’, if we may coin the term.”

   “The major difference between pure and differentiated oligopoly cases is that in pure oligopolies less "shock" is needed to alter the organization of the market.”