Meaning and Types of Markets — Economics STD 10 — Question

Monopoly is a market situation where there is a single firm selling the commodity and there is no close substitute of the commodity sold by the monopolist.
Following are the main features of monopoly:
(i) A single seller: There is only a single seller (of a commodity) in the market. He has full control over the supply of the commodity. Against a single seller, there can be any number of buyers for the commodity under monopoly.
(ii) No close substitutes of the product: The second feature of monopoly is that the product sold by the monopolist has no close substitutes. Thus the monopolist does not face any competition. The buyers will have to buy the commodity from the monopolist or go without it.
(iii) Entry of new firms is restricted: There is no freedom for the new firms to enter the industry. It may be due to legal restriction in the form of licensing or patent laws.