Governments already regulate all types of business.
Governments have a variety of objectives in mind, including preventing crime, protecting consumers, ensuring companies are properly governed, collecting taxes, supporting ecological aims and creating employment opportunities. They also take steps to encourage business to flourish through such devices as regional grant aid, tax breaks on certain types of capital equipment and providing support for SMEs. Any one government action is likely to have diverse consequences, contributing to some objectives while damaging others. By adopting a portfolio of measures, governments wish to strike a balance between regulation and creating an environment in which business can flourish. In principle the situation is no different for e-commerce.