# What exactly constitutes a monopoly?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-constitutes-a-monopoly/564801>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 20, 2010, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-constitutes-a-monopoly/564801 "2010-12-20T05:09:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TNWPsycho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@TNWPsycho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TNWPsycho)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-constitutes-a-monopoly/564801/1 "2010-12-20T05:09:04Z")

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For the sake of this discussion we can assume all companies are publicly traded. Or that every company is willing to accept outside investors.

Let’s say i own company A.

I save up a bunch of money and buy a 1% stake in every company in my sector. Is that a monopoly?

Do i need to have a majority share?

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-constitutes-a-monopoly/564801/2 "2010-12-20T05:26:50Z")

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No, that would not be a monopoly, since your 1% share doesn’t afford you any control over the other companies.

In order to have a monopoly you need to have one entity with effective price control over the entire sector.