Platform economy database
Database of initiatives and court cases in the EU
Eurofound’s platform economy database provides information on 386 initiatives and court cases that exist or have been implemented in relation to activities in the platform economy. The database was last updated in February 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 386 entries and was last updated in February 2024.
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Germany
The Platform Cooperatives Germany project offers consultation and individual services for digital cooperatives. It was launched in 2020 and received funding through the Innovation Program for Business Models and Pioneering Solutions (IGP) by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. It is being managed by the K8 Institute for strategic aesthetic, a think tank and research institute assisting with the development of ideas and projects through collaborative process and systems creation.
The project aims to provide a support system for platform cooperatives, helping with their conceptualization and establishment. It aims to create alternatives to existing business models in the platform economy and to help those alternatives to compete on the international platform market (an example is the establishment of Fairbnb as an alternative to Airbnb). The promotion and support of new forms of economic activity constitutes a bottom-up attempt to restructure the sharing economy.
The organizational design of the cooperatives is based on certain values such as democratic decision-making among members (member empowerment), facilitating open source, transparency, open and voluntary membership, protection of privacy, shared ownership, economic participation of members, democratic control, autonomy and independence, eco-friendly operations etc.
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.
