That's a good point that I would agree with, however, I don't think it's applicable here. It's not just Uber customers that pay for the company's services - the

That's a good point that I would agree with, however, I don't think it's applicable here. It's not just Uber customers that pay for the company's services - the Uber "taxis" also use infrastructure that Italian taxpayers have paid for(roads, taxi lanes, etc...I'm not familiar with the Italian situation). In that case, the Italian taxpayers would also have a say in the services provided. But even ignoring that, there is a fundamental contention between state regulation and free markets. It's obvious that Europe in general prefers at least some level of state regulation, and is willing to suffer the market inefficiency for it. Whether that's "good" or "bad" is difficult to determine, but there's certainly a number of arguments that can be made in favor of state-wide rather than piecemeal regulation, e.g. the uneven information relationship between producer and consumer(I'm not really qualified to determine whether the product is safe), the unrealistic time investment for each consumer to verify with an independent agency whether a producer is up to their standards, and so on.