"Flex­ible" and "tar­geted" reg­u­la­tions of so-called "shar­ing eco­nomy" ser­vices like Uber and Airb­nb may be ne­ces­sary, the head of the Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion said Fri­day.

In a speech at Ford­ham Uni­versity Law School, FTC Chair­wo­man Edith Ramirez warned that im­pos­ing "leg­acy reg­u­la­tions on new busi­ness mod­els" can stifle com­pet­i­tion and ul­ti­mately leaves con­sumers worse off. But, she said, reg­u­lat­ors shouldn't shy away from en­for­cing im­port­ant con­sumer pro­tec­tions on is­sues like health, safety, or pri­vacy.

"We must al­low com­pet­i­tion and in­nov­a­tion in the form of these new peer-to-peer busi­ness mod­els to flour­ish," Ramirez said, ac­cord­ing to a copy of her re­marks. "At the same time, where ne­ces­sary, tar­geted reg­u­lat­ory meas­ures may be needed to en­sure that these new busi­ness mod­els have ap­pro­pri­ate con­sumer pro­tec­tions; but they should be no great­er than ne­ces­sary to ad­dress those con­cerns."