It is customary to call monopoly enterprises that occupy a dominant position in the market for a particular product. This allows him to benefit by preventing other manufacturers from entering the market and dictate terms to consumers.
Natural monopoly occupies a specific position in the market due to the peculiarities of its production. This may be the need to use very expensive equipment, the sole possession of natural resources, exceptional technology or maximum capacity. The dominant position of an enterprise is called if it occupies 65% of the product market.
As a rule, a natural monopoly is a particularly large enterprise with developed infrastructure, which is very difficult and economically disadvantageous to re-establish. For example, railways, heat and electricity networks, etc. Most monopolies are just public enterprises, without which the functioning of the economy on a national scale is impossible. Such enterprises are characterized by a high threshold, which must be overcome in order to enter the industry.
In Russia, a situation has developed in which the existence of monopolies on its market hinders the development of full-fledged competition, which leads to a reduction in export opportunities. In the USSR period, under the command system of conducting the national economy, the whole economy was what is now defined by the term “natural monopoly”. Then there was no competition in principle, there was a comprehensive directive planning. Gosplan, Goskomtsen and Gossnab set all the parameters of the country's enterprises.
The natural monopoly is also considered as a special type of structure of the goods market , in which the barriers to entry of other entities are raised so that they are practically insurmountable.
A distinctive feature of socialist monopolies was that they were planted “from above”, while in the capitalist world they began to form “from below” and were accompanied by competition (leading enterprises with advanced technologies and a powerful technical base broke into them).
The legacy of the social era largely predetermined the further development of economic relations in the country. Antitrust legislation in the Russian Federation was developed under the conditions of the existence of strong dominant enterprises and only emerging market relations. Today it is far from perfect and needs to be improved on the basis of a generalization of law enforcement practice.
Natural monopolies in Russia have a strong position. To implement the policy aimed at supporting market structures and entrepreneurship, the State Committee for Antimonopoly Policy was created. In 1999, on its basis, they created the MAP –Ministry for Antimonopoly Policy and Entrepreneurship Support. However, the level of development of competition in Russia is still not sufficient. The reasons for this are that privatization did not lead to the emergence of effective owners, the restructuring of enterprises was not used properly, and small businesses are still not sufficiently developed.
The natural monopoly should not become an obstacle to the development of other promising forms of management (primarily - medium and small businesses). Therefore, experts believe that in Russia today it is necessary to establish tougher antitrust control over tendering, auctions, and tenders for deliveries for state needs; take measures against attempts by regional authorities to impede the movement of capital and goods throughout the country; with the help of state regulation to expand the possibilities of competition; to harmonize the legislation of all CIS countries on the issue of antitrust regulation.