We are a global organisation whose goal is to hold powerful corporations to account, and reclaim the ability of present and future generations to continually restructure our economies by collectively constraining corporate power.

What is a monopoly?

We use the word ‘monopoly’ to talk about market power. This power is not just economic, but political too. We avoid literal dictionary definitions of monopoly: they usually involve just one seller in a market, who can raise prices without anyone else undercutting them.

These rigid definitions blind us to two big things. First, you can have huge market power when there are several actors present. Amazon’s monopolistic power is immense, though it has many competitors. Amazon’s lobbyists can point to those competitors and say ‘look, no monopoly!’

Second, monopoly power doesn’t only affect sellers and their prices: it also hurts workers, citizens (with rights), taxpayers, small-business suppliers, and so on.

Dictionaries do offer ugly alternative words: for example, “monopsony” (a single buyer), oligopoly (a few sellers), or oligopsony (several buyers).  We generally hate these terms and just use “monopoly,” as some regulators do, to mean excessive economic or market power.

Frequently asked questions

Meet the Team

  • Luke Gibson

    Policy and Advocacy Lead

    Global policy and advocacy manager with over 10 years’ experience leading economic justice campaigns across Europe, Asia and Africa.

  • Claire Godfrey

    Executive Director

    Public policy specialist and campaign strategist with over 25 years’ experience working in international sustainable development. Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, hosted by the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute.

  • Hilary Jennings

    Senior Fellow

    Independent competition and regulation consultant with over 25 years’ experience of providing best practice advice to competition authorities and government departments, particularly in emerging economies, and working with the European Commission, the OECD and the World Bank. Previously held senior roles at the OECD and the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (now the CMA), as well as in the private sector.

  • Hannah Leyro Diaz

    Finance & Operations Lead

    Experienced not-for-profit specialist with over 12 years of national and international NGO experience.

  • Nicholas Shaxson

    Director of Investigations and Co-founder

    Writes on international finance, corruption and power. He has written for the Financial Times, New York Times, Guardian, Economist, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, and many others. Author of Poisoned Wells, Treasure Islands and The Finance Curse.

  • Meghna Abraham

    Board Member

    An international human rights lawyer and expert on economic, social and cultural rights who has led campaigns, investigations, and policy development to reform unjust economic policies and models for over twenty years. Formerly the Executive Director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights, she also worked for Amnesty International for more than a decade, including as the Director of Global Issues, Head of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and Senior Researcher on Corporate Crimes.

  • Audrey Gaughan

    Chair

    Currently Executive Director of the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), based in Amsterdam. Originally trained as a journalist and now specialises in investigating the impacts and enablers of corporate power.

  • John Christensen

    Board Member and Co-founder

    Formerly headed the government economic advisory service of Jersey, he has also worked as a documentary maker, film reviewer, publisher, and political activist. Chair of Stamp Out Poverty and director of the Corporate Accountability Network. Founder member of the Governance Board of Tax Inspectors Without Borders and Co-founder of the Tax Justice Network.

  • Michelle Meagher

    Board Member and Co-founder

    A recovering competition lawyer who has worked in private practice, for regulators, and for international institutions. Senior Policy Fellow at UCL Centre for Law, Economics and Society. Author of Competition is Killing Us.

Our Funding

We accept funding from public-interest grantmaking bodies and individuals.
We do not accept grants or gifts from political parties or corporations.
We are grateful to all our supporters who choose to donate to our work.

You can find our annual accounts here.