[rualca]

> They obviously need (and apparently lack) some kind of system for notifying people when prices are spiking unusually high so that exactly that can happen.

I fail to see how this classifies as a free market solution. If customers are not free to choose their supplier, and providers can whimsically just abuse their dominant position to hike prices at will, then that's not a free market at all. It just sounds like a monopolistic market dictating price hikes whenever they feel like it without fear of any consequence.