Platform work database
Database of initiatives and court cases in the EU
Eurofound’s Platform Work Database provides information on 473 initiatives and court cases that exist or have been implemented in relation to activities in the platform economy. The database was last updated in October 2026 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 473 entries and was last updated in October 2026.
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Germany
The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is engaging with other Member States and participating in the Commission Expert Group and thematic workshops to support a consistent approach, with no extension of the scope of the Directive beyond platform work currently envisaged. The government is examining all available measures regarding subcontractors engaged by digital labour platforms, including a possible direct employment requirement, that is a subcontracting ban. No draft text has been published.
On 25 September 2026 the Bundesrat adopted a resolution (Drucksache 399/26), initiated by Saarland, Lower Saxony and Bremen, asking the federal government to present a bill transposing the Directive soon. For food and grocery delivery it goes beyond the Directive by calling for a direct-employment requirement, so that couriers could no longer be deployed through subcontractors, and it asks the government to examine whether rules from the Parcel Couriers Protection Act (Paketboten-Schutz-Gesetz) can be applied to food delivery workers. The resolution is not binding on the federal government.
A separate measure, the Act on the Modernisation and Digitalization of the Combat against Undeclared Work and Unlawful Employment (SchwarzArbMoDiG) of November 2025, adds platform-based delivery services to the statutory list of high-risk industries for undeclared work enforcement. It does not address classification and is not a transposition measure, but it excludes platform delivery employers from the simplified text form under the Act on Proof of the Essential Working Conditions, requiring handwritten signatures on employment contracts, and expands the powers of the Financial Control of Undeclared Work Unit.
This digital story presents headline findings on the working conditions and information needs of online platform workers across key areas: Who platform workers are; Where they operate geographically; Their working conditions and earnings; How algorithmic management impacts their work; Information needs about rights and protecting workers in the digital economy.
This report analyses the working conditions and information needs of online platform workers based on a survey of 3 830 workers across 15 EU Member States. Unlike existing research focused on on-location platform work, this study examines workers who provide services entirely online. The findings reveal a workforce that is predominantly male, of prime working age and highly educated, primarily delivering skilled professional services rather than microtasks.
Building on Eurofound’s established conceptual framework of the digital age, this concept paper examines how the unfolding artificial intelligence wave is set to transform not only the world of work and employment, but also the wider fabric of society, from the delivery and quality of public services to the production, dissemination and governance of information. The analysis is guided by four vectors of change – automation, augmentation, digitisation and platformisation – identified as the central drivers shaping this transformation. The concepts presented in this paper will inform Eurofound’s future research on artificial intelligence and algorithmic management.
Findings of a new Eurofound–ELA survey conducted in 15 Member States confirm the widespread use of intrusive algorithmic management practices in online platform work.
This working paper aims to provide an overview of the legal landscape of online platform work in the EU, focusing on a set of key issues relating to the rights and protections of online platform workers. Specifically, regulations concerning working conditions and social protection, the complexities of cross-border platform work, and regulations on algorithmic management, data privacy, and protection.
This article explores how algorithmic management operates, distinguishing between rule-based and AI-driven approaches, and examines how it automates key managerial functions such as planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling. It also considers the implications for workers’ employment status, drawing on recent court rulings, and assesses its impact on working conditions, highlighting both potential benefits such as efficiency gains and risks including reduced autonomy, unfair treatment and privacy infringements.
