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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France
Ordinance No. 2021-484 of 21 April 2021 sets the terms and conditions for the representation of self-employed workers using platforms for their activity and the conditions for exercising this representation.
This ordinance sets the terms and conditions for the representation of self-employed workers using platforms for their activity as well as the conditions for exercising this representation. This ordinance aims to develop collective bargaining and establish the representativeness for platform workers in France. The representation will be initially established at the sector level (firstly private cars with drivers and delivery) and eventually at the platform level.
The ordinance creates the Employment Platforms Social Relations Authority (Autorité des relations sociales des plateformes d’emploi, ARPE). The authority body has five main roles:
The ARPE may request any document from platform companies when necessary for fulfilling its responsibility, especially for the examination of requests for authorisation to terminate the commercial contracts of workers' representatives, as well as for the hearing of any person likely to contribute to its information. The ARPE is funded by a tax paid by the platforms, with the rate and the base determined by the finance law.
Additionally, the ordinance specifies the terms of election of representatives. The workers vote for trade union organisations (not for individuals) which must have existed for at least six months. Workers must have been working in the economic sector in question for at least three months to be eligible to vote. Each worker has one vote. The organisations must achieve at least 8% of the votes cast to be considered as representative.
The selected representative organisations then appoint representatives, whose commercial contract cannot be terminated at the initiative of the platform unless authorised by ARPE. This authorisation is given when the proposed termination is not related to the representative functions performed by the appointed worker.
Two national ballots are to be organised to establish the representativeness of the organisations representing workers defined in article L.7341-1 of Labour Code (i.e. the workers who are self-employed and are using digital platforms for the exercise of their activities). The first national ballot will be organised before 31 December 2022, via an electronic vote supervised by ARPE. For the first ballot, the organisations must achieve only 5% of the votes cast to be considered as representative. The list of representative organisations will be decided before 30 June 2023. The second ballot must be conducted within two years of the date of the first ballot.
The previous ordinance does not provide the representation of the platforms themselves and the conditions of collective bargaining between platforms and representatives of self-employed workers.
Therefore, on 13 July 2021, a bill ratifying this ordinance was submitted to the Council of Ministers, which gives government the power to finalise the rules governing social dialogue within platforms by ordinance.
Regarding the representation of platforms, the bill provides that the government may define:
To empower the government to define the rules organising social dialogue at the level of each platform with self-employed workers, the ordinance provides that the government may define:
The ordinance issued in April 2021 already specified the responsibilities of ARPE. In addition, the new July 2021 ordinance provides that ARPE could act as a mediator between platforms and self-employed workers, and provide expertise, analysis and proposals related to the activity of platforms and their workers.
The ordinance also provides that the government could ‘supplement the obligations on platforms regarding the workers who use them, in order to strengthen the autonomy of these platform workers when exercising their activity’. Possible measures include improving the way in which they are informed about service proposals and guaranteeing them the autonomy to determine the way in which the services are provided and the means to be used for the provision of such services.
As of August 2021, the bill has not yet been approved by the Parliament. Once it is adopted by the Parliament, the ordinance should enter into force within a maximum of 18 months following the promulgation of the law.
The following recent changes to this initiative have been recorded.
A new agreement was signed in September 2023 by seven organizations representing independent workers (AVF, Union – Indépendants, FNAE, CFTC and UNSA) and two organizations representing platforms (API and FFPR). The agreement addresses two major issues: the transparency of the algorithms used by platforms and the conditions under which platforms can deactivate accounts.
Regarding the transparency of the algorithms, the agreement guarantees drivers access to information on important aspects of their activity, including impact of the trip cancellation rate or customer evaluations on the price of trips and on the termination of accounts.
The agreement also provides that the drivers must be informed in advance of the conditions that could lead to the termination of accounts. Importantly, it also introduces a compensation mechanism for wrongful deactivations. This is the third such agreement signed in the context of the new regulatory framework established in France in 2021. The agreements can be accessed here.
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.
