Ghent University Professor and Director of Itinera Institute based in Brussels Marc De Vos made important evaluations regarding the future impacts of the platform economy on business life and labour law at the conference organised by IKV on 3 May 2018.

With the incredible speed of technological development and digitalisation, initiatives aimed at bringing consumers together with service providers on a single platform such as Uber, Airbnb, Kickstart, Upwork and Amazon started to receive the lion’s share of the global economy, in turn took the attention of legal experts as well as business world. The platform economy, which is based on bringing services with consumers through online platforms without the need for physical infrastructure, is getting ready to break the mould in business methods as well as labour law.

While stating that infrastructures has begun to break apart with the introduction of platform economy, Prof. De Vos stressed that work areas has become shareable, the mobility has increased and highly competent workforce has become accessible all over the world. Prof. De Vos called on the legal experts who are trying to catch up with this transformation of the business atmosphere and said: “Stay calm and continue with your work.”

Marc De Vos stressed that the users of services such as Uber which provides services in transport sector, or Airbnb, which enables renting a house  temporarily without an intermediary, are mainly urban, educated and young people between the ages of 18-24 and 25-34. Professor De Vos highlighted that the youth establish the future, thus platform economy could be an important factor shaping the future. De Vos added: “The platform economy is still seen as an additional source of income for most individuals who have other primary source of income. This mechanism has not yet turned into a primary source of income for people to make a living.”

Regarding the trend of inclining towards to the platform economy with the technological transformations, De Vos stated that this method brings flexibility, independence and income opportunity thus a new potential along, and reminded that if supported by effective legal regulations; it could turn into an important assurance in front of informal employment.

Along with the positive connotations, De Vos touched upon the possible ambiguities and problems the platform might bring along and argued that the transformation has created major differences in traditional contract law and methods of contract-making.

Prof. De Vos stated as follows: “The content of some traditional concepts such as an employer, employee and labour contract seem as it will be reshaped by the increased availability of services through platforms such as Uber, Amazon, and Kickstart. It is also possible that concepts which are taken for granted in traditional labour law, such as maximum working hours, minimum wages, rescission of business contracts in the framework of fair rules are threatened and transformed.

In the platform economy, there is not a classical employer/employee relationship between the platform-managers and suppliers and the contracts are not arranged based on this attribution. Instead of a reciprocal obligation, there is volunteerism. A situation like this causes a tension in the traditional judicial opinion on labour law that treats the suppliers as they are independent contractors. We are now facing a new circumstance that involves the transformations of contracts to micro-scaled assignments; offerings of business opportunities to accomplishing tasks that are optionally accepted in the platform; the obligation to provide employment to the facilitation of initiatives, while the payment of the employer in return of services transforms to the employer’s mediation of the customer payment.”  

De Vos reminded the necessity of equilibrium in combatting with these dilemmas in labour law and drew attention to the latest ruling of CJEU on Uber by expressing that these decisions are important in understanding and directing the reciprocal interaction of technology and law in the future. Hereinafter, on the question of how Uber-like initiatives will become even more successful and acceptable, De Vos uttered the need of making them more practical and reliable.