Platform economy database
Database of initiatives and court cases in the EU
Eurofound’s platform economy database provides information on 389 initiatives and court cases that exist or have been implemented in relation to activities in the platform economy. The database was last updated in June 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 389 entries and was last updated in June 2024.
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France
The Collective of Independent Delivery Workers in Paris(Collectif des Livreurs Autonomes de Paris, CLAP), is a self-organised, autonomous collective of food delivery riders. It was established in 2017 in response to the growing precariousness of workers of meal delivery platforms. The case of Take Eat Easy had a significant contribution to the establishment of the collective. After ceasing its operations in France, the company/platform did not pay its workers for their last months of work.
CLAP disseminates information on working conditions and rights, organises and mobilises for protests, launches awareness raising campaigns and organises conferences for lobbying purposes. Furthermore, it acts as a press agency for delivery workers and helps the workers with labour court actions and supports them through the collection of occupational accident compensation.
In July 2018, the collective went on strike during the two World Cup games to protest dangerous working conditions and the platforms’ recruitment strategies, which focus on hiring many workers and results in low wages and increased competition for shifts. Workers of Deliveroo, Foodora, Glovo and Stuart participated in the strike.
The collective sees itself as an important institutional counterpart to the CGT-affiliated unions representing delivery workers. In an interview, the secretary general of CLAP explained that while trade unions represent a more traditional form of employee-representation, CLAP fills the gap of representing self-employed workers who prefer a flexible work relationship and who appreciate the autonomous structure of workers' organisations such as CLAP.
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.
