Säätelemät

Säätelemät is a Finnish term used in policy, economics and social discourse to refer to things, activities, or sectors that are not governed by formal regulation. The word can function as an adjective or as a noun phrase meaning “the unregulated,” and its precise meaning depends on the context. It is not a formal legal term with a universally fixed definition, but it is commonly used to indicate areas where rules do not apply or are incomplete.

In discussions about regulation, säätelemät items can include informal markets, certain consumer practices, or emerging technologies that have not yet been covered by law or official oversight. The term often appears in analyses of regulation gaps, limits of regulatory frameworks, or debates about extending rules to new areas, sometimes in connection with questions of safety, competition, or consumer protection.

Linguistic notes: The form arises from the idea of regulation and uses the plural suffix -mät to denote multiple unregulated entities. Because it is a non-technical, context-dependent term, it may be replaced in formal writing by more precise phrases such as säätelemättömät kohteet, säätelemättömät toiminnot or säätelemättömät markkinat.

Related concepts include regulation, deregulation, self-regulation, and informal norms. The notion of what counts as säätelemät can shift with policy goals and regulatory design.