1.5 The Balance between Regulation and Free Market Principle

Competition law is the market's referee, not its manager. The line: ex-ante sector regulation (licenses, tariffs — for natural monopolies like electricity grids) versus ex-post competitionenforcement (punishing abuse after the fact — for contestable markets). Too much regulation kills the market's vitality; too little lets private power do what the law prevents public power from doing. Nepal's design: sector regulators (the electricity and telecommunications frames) plus the horizontal competition statute — the map studied in Administrative Law (LAW5605).