captive market

British  

noun

1. a group of consumers who are obliged through lack of choice to buy a particular product, thus giving the supplier a monopoly

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Example Sentences

They have a captive market and they don't want to share it.

From BBC • May 5, 2022

But its status as the country’s largest residential mortgage servicer gives it ample opportunity to exploit this captive market.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 19, 2021

And then the second part of it, in terms of what the food provides—in some instances, they had a captive market, or a market that understood the food experience as more practical than an indulgence.

From Slate • Jan. 15, 2020

The company, Consupago, offers loans that are among the most expensive in Mexico to a captive market of government employees.

From New York Times • Mar. 27, 2018

Libraries were a captive market, and journals had improbably installed themselves as the gatekeepers of scientific prestige – meaning that scientists couldn’t simply abandon them if a new method of sharing results came along.

From The Guardian • Jun. 27, 2017