The Internet, e-Commerce & Government

References 15 The Internet, e-commerce, and Government

At the present time, the attitude of Congress toward regulating the Internet and e-commerce can be summarized in two words: "hands off (Bettelheim & Ota, 2000)." Lawmakers at both the national and state levels have apparently been reasonably content to let the digital marketplace develop new technologies and products and create its own rules and governance structures. This is a situation that is about to change, given that recent events such as the acquisition of Time Warner, Inc., by America Online (AOL) are leading the U.S. government to consider whether or not control of the Internet can legitimately be left in the hands of for-profit businesses and the emerging communications conglomerates (Bettelheim & Ota, 2000).

Several critically important issues can be identified that are driving demands for government intervention and regulation. These issues, to be discussed herein, include:

1) the potential of e-commerce practices to foster violations of existing interstate and other commerce regulations;

2) the question of taxation policy with resp

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can facilitate this transition from a totally open and "free" market to a more closely regulated one. Monopolistic Competition Penbera (1999) also notes that questions regarding the potential of the Internet to serve as a locus for the re-emergence of monopolies is also recognized. The case against Microsoft has renewed caution among the larger e-commerce firms, since consolidations like that of Time Warner and AOL have begun to slow. The ultimate aims of firms like Cisco, IBM, and Microsoft are to pursue transaction management in cyberspace; without government involvement, it is often argued, this tendency will predominate the e-commerce landscape. A new Justice Department taskforce is looking at e-commerce in six areas of monopolistic practice: 1) price control; 2) price/product collision; 3) patent control; 4) intercorporate relations; 5) trade lobbies; and 6) mergers (Penbera, 1999). These are complex and difficult issues, but the infrastructure for resolving the problems it creates is already in place. Long before the Internet emerged as a locus for retail sales and marketing, catalog and telephone sales resulted in the shipment of regulated products such as fruits, vegetables, and processed foods across state borders a

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