The reason is that price regulation has created a mishmash of conflicting policies and perverse incentives.
Instead, they guarantee companies a fair return on capital through price regulation.
Since then, the tide of opinion has moved against single-till price regulation.
It is the Department of Health's (DH) role to control prices, and this is done by what is known as the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS).
On September 28th, the Civil Aviation Authority, the airports' regulator, is to recommend a new method of price regulation, which will end the cross-subsidy of airport charges.
Although I have been critical of certain cable practices, it is a step too far to suggest that cable companies should be subject to price regulation or government-subsidized overbuilding because they invested in neighborhoods where no else has been willing to follow.
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Under the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, branded-drug companies are allowed to make a profit of up to 21 per cent on any medicines they sell to the NHS. They have a free hand to set the prices when they are introduced but, every five years, the government and the companies agree an across-the-board cut on all drugs.
It is now acknowledged, even by those representing car and road-haulage interests, that measures to restrain vehicle use by price or regulation are inevitable.
The tool the Chinese government used to discipline Unilever on Friday was the country's Price Law, a regulation that limits public commentary about future prices to avoid anticompetitive practices, including price fixing.
The truth is that most drivers will abandon their cars only if compelled to do so by regulation or price.
"We expect 2013 to be another tough year for the EMEA telecommunications industry as revenues are likely to decline in Europe by up to 2% next year, due to continuing macroeconomic weakness, aggressive price cuts and tough regulation, " Moody's Investors Service said in a recent report.
Regulation to induce price stability would act to force over and or under consumption and eventually lead to a degradation of this market.
Governments can either choose to leave people fuming in their cars (which wastes people's time and pollutes the air) or they can ration road space by regulation or by price.
While there are industries where it makes sense to allow duopolies or even monopolies to obtain economies of scale and network effects computer operating systems and electric utilities might be two examples the tradeoff usually is that they must accept closer government regulation to prevent price-gouging and other abuses.
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It may be humanely directed, but the ultimate price of a statutory backstop to regulation of the newspaper industry is a docile press.
At least in its later stages, Thatcherite privatisation was concerned with the restructuring of government-owned industries to introduce price mechanisms, competition and transparent regulation, to offer a share of ownership to the public, and to promote general economic efficiency.
Often companies are even placed out of business when they are no longer able to offer a product, commodity or service at a reasonable price as a result of over-regulation.
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The next stage in this evolution toward price transparency would be a court case or federal regulation exterminating the no-surcharge rules.
But regulation is no substitute for putting a price on carbon, which would harness the power of the market to cut emissions more cheaply.
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Regulation, after all, is the price that society demands, and banks pay, in return for the implicit promise of a government bail-out if the worst happens.
The decision was warmly received by the VoIP industry, where growth has been haunted by the specter of regulation, which threatened to raise the price of calls and reduce the profitability of service providers.
But Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger told the BBC "a bit of statute" was a price worth paying for an effective new system of regulation and that he believed the press could "live with most of" the Leveson proposals.
But more that, state regulation allows utilities to put a premium price for solar when they consider bids because solar can be most productive during the time of the day when demand for electricity to run, say, air conditioning , is also higher.
Jersey's competition regulator announced plans to remove price controls on stamps as part of a more relaxed regulation of postal services.
Common carrier-type regulation, with its strict anti-discrimination mandates and price controls, dampens investment and innovation, especially in technologically dynamic, constantly evolving markets.
Ofcom, which has taken over regulation from Postcomm, has made the proposals to remove price caps on first-class stamps and raise the price limit on second class to as much as 55p owing to "huge changes" in the industry.
Similarly, while the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) could use its authority under Obamacare to pass a regulation that states simply that all Americans have a right to know the price of their health care, this too would take time and could encounter stiff political resistance.
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"Regulation of the home heating oil industry could provide consumers with transparency and reassurance that the price they are being asked to pay is fair, " he said.
The new rules, called the Regulation National Market System, require trade orders to be routed to the exchange with the best price.
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