Wikipedia on”switching barriers”
Switching barriers or switching costs are terms used in microeconomics, strategic management, and marketing to describe any impediment to a customer’s changing of suppliers.
In many markets, consumers are forced to incur costs when switching from one supplier to another. These costs are called switching costs and can come in many forms.
It’s not just customers who have switching costs though
see also Lock-in, Path Dependency
marchudson.net 