The level of competition least beneficial to consumers is monopoly.
Monopoly is a market structure where a single business dominates a product or service - the least business competition.
Monopolies are least beneficial for consumers and most beneficial to owners. It has high barriers to entry, meaning it is difficult to become and stay the sole producer of a good or service.
Pros: Firm has price-setting ability; Cons: Consumers have only one option.
A modern economy has many different types of industries. However, an economic analysis of the different firms or industries within an economy is simplified by first segregating them into different models based on the amount of competition within the industry. There are 4 basic market models: pure competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and pure monopoly.
In a purely competitive market, there are large numbers of firms producing a standardized product.
Monopolistic competition is much like pure competition in that there are many suppliers and the barriers to entry are rather low.
An oligopoly is a market dominated by a few suppliers. A high barrier to entry limits the number of suppliers that can compete in the market, so the oligopolistic firms have considerable influence over the market price of their product.
A pure monopoly has pricing power within the market. There is only one supplier who has significant market power and determines the price of its product.
Learn more about these market models on ThisMatter.com.
For further reading, see Economics Basics: Monopolies, Oligopolies and Perfect Competition from Investopedia.com.