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.
CoopCycle is the European federation of bicycle delivery cooperatives. Democratically governed by cooperatives, it is based on solidarity between them and allows them to reduce their costs through resources pooling. It creates a collective bargaining force to protect bikers’ rights.
Scope of the initiative CoopCycle has three main activities:
To gain access to the CoopCycle platform, individual riders or established cooperatives for bike delivery riders must contact CoopCycle which verifies their eligibility. They are admitted only if two conditions are met: riders must be organized in a legal cooperative and the cooperative must fit with the definition of social economy actors as defined by the European Union. The latter means that cooperatives must be governed collectively (meaning one person - one vote), provide social protection and insurance (for example, in case of accidents, for the bycicles, etc.) and pooling of tools (such as software, marketing, etc.). Moreover, CoopCycle aims to ensure good working conditions for workers. These conditions are usually prescribed in the form of charters and integrated in the internal regulations of cooperatives.
Cooperatives provide membership fees to CoopCycle, which account for 51% of CoopCycle’s funding. The rate of the membership fee is 3% of the turnover of the previous year (only a small amount of capital is demanded from new cooperatives in the first year). CoopCycle expects that in the long-term membership fees will increase to 5% of the turnover of the previous year. In addition, 13% of CoopCycle funding comes from contributions of restaurants and merchants, 12% from services provided to business partners, 12% from public subsidies (regional government grants) and 12% from volunteers.
Through cooperatives, platform workers become full employees of the cooperative and receive a permanent contract (Contrat à Durée Indéterminée, CDI). This status ensures that platform workers in the cooperative have full access to social protection (unemployment insurance, sick leave, etc.), professional insurance and other benefits that are guaranteed to employees in France. Within a cooperative, the salary of a platform worker consists of two components: a fixed component that does not change and a variable component depending on the individual platform worker’s contribution to the total revenue of the cooperative. Three years after joining the cooperative, the employee is obliged to become an associate of the employment and activity cooperative. As associates, employees participate in the democratic decision-making process within the cooperative.
Scale of the initiative CoopCycle is used by cooperatives in 6 European Union countries (Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Poland) as well as by cooperatives in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. It covers between 200 and 300 platform workers from 70 cooperatives.
CoopCycle has two employees: the founder (full-time) and a coordinator (part-time). Additionally, around 30 people are working on the governance, licensing and other issues as volunteers.
Strengths and weaknesses Guiding the cooperatives through legal and business aspects of the platform work in addition to providing the software has proven beneficial for growing the cooperatives and scaling up the CoopCycle platform. CoopCycle supports the cooperatives throughout the entire process of establishment including with preparing and submitting the documents to the government or negotiating customized group insurance deals.
Moreover, CoopCycle also provides business advice – prioritisation and organization of operations, building and expanding the client database, internal governance, etc. This contributes to the growth of the newly established cooperatives and to an increase in contributions to CoopCycle. For instance, CoopCycle has experienced a tenfold growth over past 4 years (from 6 French cooperatives in 2016 to more than 60 international cooperatives in 2020). This speaks to the demand for such an initiative.
In terms of impact on affiliated workers, the main strength of the CoopCycle is the requirement to set up a legal cooperative. This helps to ensure that workers are provided with social protection and insurance, as well as other benefits (e.g. sick leave, annual leave, etc.).
The funding of the initiative is based largely on the contributions of cooperatives. The contributions of cooperatives to CoopCycle are relatively small (3% of the previous annual turnover). This funding is insufficient to cover all functional operations or to scale-up the initiative. This also limits CoopCycle’s ability to search and apply for new funding opportunities.
Another weakness of the initiative is its limited visibility when compared to large platforms such as UberEats and Deliveroo. Currently the platform work market is highly concentrated and dominated by a handful of large platforms. Large platforms have better access to capital and therefore can market their services better. While CoopCycle aims to increase the resources and improve the market position of small cooperatives relative to larger platforms, it remains challenging to compete with platforms that dominate the market.
Overall, the initiative is effective and has a positive impact on platform workers. CoopCycle has managed to create a fully-fledged alternative to the traditional bike delivery platforms, while ensuring higher salaries (on average 25% higher than minimum salary in France), better and safer working conditions as well as access to social protection. Moreover, CoopCycle has been successful in empowering platform workers and raising awareness around the working conditions in the platform economy.
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.
Belgium
France
Germany
Poland
Spain
Non-EU