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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Spain
The Labour and Social Security Inspectorate (ITSS) in Madrid has proposed a penalty of €57 million on delivery company Glovo for false classification of self-employed workers and illegal employment of migrant workers.
According to the Inspectorate, 7,022 workers have been wrongly classified and as such are under reported for social security registration, amounting to a total of €32.9 million missing in outstanding co-payments from the employer. This amount has been calculated into the penalty by the Inspectorate along with the €19 million missing from the workers contribution. In addition, Glovo has been fined €5.2 million for engaging 813 workers who were employed without the required work permits.
Following the proposal of penalties on Glovo, the company has announced a restructuring plan which will include the dismissal of 250 employees at its head office in Barcelona, Spain.
The following recent changes to this administrative action have been recorded.
A Chamber of the National High Court of Spain has suspended Glovo from the payment of €64 million. Glovo had appealed the payment of the fine which is a result of bogus self-employment. The €64 million are comprised of multiple settlement and sanction payments Glovo was previously ruled to deliver.
The background of this court ruling is that Glovo is in a difficult financial situation, including a loss of €209 million made in 2023. The platform warned that it would potentially face insolvency proceedings if it would have to pay the fine now, as it is facing liquidity problems, also due to Spanish banks having reduced or eliminated the credit offered to Glovo. Lastly, the stock value of Delivery-Hero, the multi-national which owns Glovo, has fallen, diminishing the extent to which Delivery-Hero could contribute to the payment of the €64 million.
Glovo has now had a total of 12 fines suspended by national courts between November of 2023 and January 2024, amounting to €67,3 million in total.
It has been announced that Glovo will have to pay 10% interest on the fines, meaning that the final amount the platform will have to pay is over €70 million. Glovo also needs to provide the guarantee that it will be able to pay the fine in the future.
The Basque Parliament passed a resolution calling for increased scrutiny over Glovo's compliance with labour rights and court rulings, emphasising the need for correct worker classification and exploring cooperative models. …
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.
