Platform economy database
Database of initiatives and court cases in the EU
Eurofound’s platform economy database provides information on 412 initiatives and court cases that exist or have been implemented in relation to activities in the platform economy. The database was last updated in January 2025 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 412 entries and was last updated in January 2025.
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Sweden
The platform Foodora signed a collective agreement with the Swedish Transport Workers' Union on the 25th of February 2021, becoming the first platform in Sweden to be bound by a collective agreement.
Concretely, Foodora signed the Transport Agreement which regulates general employment conditions and pay for terminal workers, road hauliers and drivers of delivery vehicles. Bicycle and moped couriers are not covered by the agreement. The parties also reached a separate deal, a company agreement, for bicycle and moped couriers. The agreement gives the couriers a right to a fixed hourly wage and a fixed premium for each delivery, as well as to contractual pension, holiday pay and annual wage increases.
When it was signed, the collective agreement was hailed as a huge success and a big step towards making collective agreements the norm in Sweden's platform sector. However, it turned out far from all employees were covered by the agreement as many couriers were employed by a formally separate company, Hungry Delivery (now DH Logistics, whose parent company is Foodora). Since signing the agreement, Foodora has transferred more of its business to couriers that are not covered by the agreement, weakening its impact.
The agreement was in effect until April 2023. In May 2023, Foodora and the Swedish Transport Workers' Union reached a new collective agreement which will be in effect until April 2025.
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.
