There is no such thing as a free market. It's a myth.

In the absence of government regulation, companies would withhold as much information as possible from consumers, preventing those consumers from making informed decisions about which products and services to consume. There would be overwhelming information asymmetry, which would lead to sub-optimal choices. Such a market would not be free, because companies would have immense power over consumers and would undoubtedly abuse it in order to maximize profits.

Capitalism leads to the most efficient allocation of resources, but government regulation needs to exist in order to ensure the profit motive does not outweigh the need to treat consumers fairly.