Platform economy database
Database of initiatives and court cases in the EU
Eurofound’s platform economy database provides information on 386 initiatives and court cases that exist or have been implemented in relation to activities in the platform economy. The database was last updated in February 2024 and provides metadata for each entry, such as geographical scope, year, type of initiative, actors involved, sector and companies concerned. Initiatives include legal instruments such as legislative changes or court decisions, as well as voluntary interventions undertaken by different stakeholders to address issues around platform work.
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The database currently contains 386 entries and was last updated in February 2024.
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Belgium
In the first ever Tribunal or court ruling in Belgium on the qualification of an employment relationship in the platform economy, on 8 December 2021, the Labour Tribunal ruled that Deliveroo riders are not employees. The labour prosecutors worked for two years to understand the working conditions of Deliveroo riders, investigating whether the workers should be reclassified as employees. The civil claim was not successful as the judges believed the self-employed workers do not fiscally benefit from the sharing economy’s system.
This case had two key questions, (1) whether Deliveroo riders can use the fiscally beneficial system for the sharing economy, and (2) whether Deliveroo riders should be qualified as self-employed or as employees (with Deliveroo as employer).
The Tribunal stated that Deliveroo did not comply with conditions which need to be fulfilled in order to be considered part of the sharing economy. The following conditions were ruled as not being met by Deliveroo:
As such, riders must be self-employed and due to this, be liable for unpaid taxes and social security contributions.
Couriers joined the case demanding the application of the labour law provisions (application of wage scales, reimbursement of expenses, compliance with the collective bargaining agreements concluded in the “Transport and Logistics” Joint Committees). This addressed the second question: what is the legal qualification of relationship between Deliveroo and its riders?
The Tribunal rejected claims from Deliveroo that it was not a transport or logistics company as the services rendered by the riders is what was being assessed, not that of Deliveroo. Using the investigation from prosecutors, 6 out of 8 specific criteria of the road transport and logistics sector were fulfilled for a rebuttable presumption that the Deliveroo drivers were employees:
However, when assessing the four general criteria of the Labour Relations Act (last amended at the time in 2006) of Belgium, the presumption of employment could indeed be rebutted:
While the Tribunal states the examples are of a substantively different context and nature, the court referenced cases for Deliveroo and Uber in Belgium (rulings nrs. 113 and 116 of the Administrative Commission for the qualification of the labour relationship) and beyond its borders (e.g., the cases before the Cour de Cassation in France and Gerechtshof Amsterdam).
The following recent changes to this court ruling have been recorded.
The court ruling of December 2021 establishing that Deliveroo riders are self-employed has been overturned by the Belgian labour court in Brussels on 22 December 2023. The ACV-CSC union had appealed the initial court decision which concluded that Deliveroo riders could be considered self-employed. The court has now concluded that all Deliveroo riders are employees.
As a result, Deliveroo is obliged to pay social security contributions for its riders, and needs to comply with applicable sector agreements. Deliveroo riders are also entitled to benefits which come with the employment status, meaning minimum wages, occupational accident insurance, the right to apply for unemployment benefits in the case of job loss, and sectoral collective bargaining. The court has also emphasised that, because Deliveroo riders are employees, the sharing economy law which was being disputed in the court ruling of 2021 is not applicable.
Deliveroo has announced that it will appeal the decision of the labour court and take the case to the supreme court.
The platform economy is one of those moving targets, which, despite receiving increasing media and policy attention, has proven difficult to regulate. Given the heterogeneity of employment relationships, business models, types of platform work and cross-border issues, this is not surprising.
Technological change is accelerating as the capacity of electronic devices to digitally store, process and communicate information expands. Digitalisation is transforming the EU economy and labour markets: nearly one-third of EU workplaces are categorised as highly digitalised. What are the implications of the digital revolution for employment and work?
The rapid rise of the platform economy has led to a marked transformation of European labour markets, and existing regulatory frameworks and voluntary initiatives have yet to catch up. While platform work offers opportunities for workers and employers and potentially contributes to innovation, economic growth and competitiveness in the EU, it has been criticised from the beginning because of the poor employment and working conditions often experienced by workers.
While 2020 may come to be seen as the year platform work gathered pace and started to go mainstream – thanks in large part to COVID-19 containment measures sparking an increase in food and grocery delivery – 2021 could be the year that regulation of platform work is set in motion.
