Great Britain’s regulators have blocked what should have been a private enterprise business decision taken in a free market.  But, then, Great Britain’s economy is no more free market than ours has devolved into, and in some ways, the Brits’ economy is even less so.

Regulators blocked the proposed merger between Walmart Inc’s British grocery unit and rival J Sainsbury citing competition concerns….

And

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said [last] Thursday the merger would reduce competition and could lead to price rises for shoppers.

“Concerns” about a possible future—one of many. “Could lead….”

All of this is prior restraint and idle speculation.  The Brits would have been better off to let market forces determine those outcomes, and if the merger proved uncompetitive, then take action based on actual facts, rather than their current course of acting on fortune telling and other guesses.

The Brits would be better off to return to a free market economy generally.