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 May 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 May 2025.
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Netherlands
On 21 February 2025, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled on how to determine employee status. The court clarified that there is no hierarchy among the factors relevant in determining if there is an employment agreement.
In the ruling, the court specifically examined the 'entrepreneurship' factor, i.e. factors indicating self-employment, clarifying that this factor must be considered as a full element, as significant as other factors, when assessing the employment status of a worker. The ruling further clarified that the assessment should look at both internal and external entrepreneurial factors. Internal factors exist within the working relationship and include financial risk and independence in setting working hours. External entrepreneurship refers to factors outside of the working relationship, such as business registrations and having multiple clients. The result of this ruling is that two workers that perform the same work may have different employment statuses, depending on their level of 'entrepreneurship'.
The ruling arose from a case on the application of the Taxi Transport Collective Labour Agreement (CAO Taxivervoer) involving Uber, a group of drivers and the FNV trade union. The trade union had argued that Uber should comply with the agreement, while Uber had argued that the agreement can not be applied as the workers are self-employed. In this context, the Court of Appeal requested for the Supreme Court to clarify which factors should be considered during the assessment of 'entrepreneurship'.
The ruling builds on the Supreme Court's Deliveroo judgement from 24 March 2023, which outlined a framework and relevant factors for determining whether an employment contract exists.
On 24 March 2023, in a landmark ruling, the Dutch Supreme Court upheld a ruling by the Court of Appeal that Deliveroo riders were legally employees, not independent contractors. The …
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.
