Free market includes when competition can reasonably enter a market that's not structured through legislation to be overly favorable towards incumbents.

Note that there are natural monopolies/oligopolies, which are the result of the nature of the market (eg need for scale) rather than legal lobbying.

The regulations literally stopped any competitors from even being allowed in the same area. If you’re genuinely curious about how that screws up industries (not just short term pricing) I’d recommend Luigi Zingales‘s A Capitalism for the People, it has a very thorough analysis of crony capitalism.

Yes, I meant it, thanks for the reference! My first message was needlessly provocative