In economics, a free market is a system in which the prices for goods and services are determined by the open market and consumers, in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority. 

The concept of free market contrasts with regulated market, in which a government intervenes in supply and demand through various methods such as tariffs used to restrict trade and protect the economy. In a free market economy, prices for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand and are allowed to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy. 

Although free markets are commonly associated with capitalism within a market economy in contemporary usage and popular culture, free markets have also been advocated by free-market anarchists, market socialists, and some proponents of cooperatives and advocates of profit sharing. Criticism of the theoretical concept consider systems with significant market power, inequality of bargaining power, or information asymmetry to be less than free, with regulation being necessary to control those imbalances. 

The laissez-faire principle expresses a preference for an absence of non-market pressures on prices and wages, such as those from discriminatory government taxes, subsidies, tariffs, regulations of purely private behavior, or government-granted or coercive monopolies. Friedrich Hayek argued in "The Pure Theory of Capital" that the goal is the preservation of the unique information contained in the price itself.
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prices for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand 