These 10 Corporations Control Almost Everything You Buy

[Jonrox]

Hey Punchy, I did what you said to do and looked through the Competition Act. I asked you to respond with the parts of the act you know are being broken by these 10 companies. I haven't seen anything back. Simply posting the act is no proof that any of these companies are breaking any laws... you need to be specific and backup your argument.

I also think the term you've been searching for throughout this thread is oligopoly, not monopoly. And with how fiercely some of these companies compete, the oligopoly that arguably exists may not be all that bad for the consumer.

[NAB]

I don't think that claim holds true for big oil's oligopoly. Just the same, being part of an oligopoly is not illegal in Canada either.

Nab

[Poindexter]

Having worked in an industry with few competitors for years here are the main reasons you should be concerned:
1) price fixing. It's not as though they all get together and decide on a price but if costs go down they realize they must avoid REPRICING, which is what it's called when either competitor lowers the price and is matched by the one or two other competitors. neither company benefits so they don't pass savings on to customers for fear of repricing the market.

2) poor customer service. When you only have to be slightly better than your competitor you don't have to strive for quality service. Take shaw, bell, and telus. There was a reason they all became nightmares to contact and employed IVR's instead of live people. They all cheap out but still don't loose competive edge because we've been conditioned to expect long waits for certain industries.

3. Product innovation, when your competition's product is equally unhealthy or boring no need to rock the boat.
Small numbers of competitors allow the few to focus on each other and use their virtually guaranteed market share to harvest the profits without focusing on the end customer.