That's generally how things must work. If a bunch of companies are polluting a river with industrial waste because if they don't, they won't remain competitive

That's generally how things must work. If a bunch of companies are polluting a river with industrial waste because if they don't, they won't remain competitive and profitable with the other companies that do, the solution is to regulate that no, you can't dump your industrial waste in the river. Is that "authoritarian"?