Today, the European Commission presented its recommendations for the Member States on the participatory economy. Business models such as Uber or Airbnb are constantly growing and have become an essential service for many consumers. However, employment and consumer protection, social security, tax issues and safety standards are not clearly regulated and therefore enable new business sectors to distort the market in their favour. Even though the recommendations of the Commission address these issues, they are not ambitious enough.

Recommendations of the Commission

The term “participatory economy” refers to a business model, where goods and services are traded temporarily on online exchange platforms. The Commission made recommendations in a small number of sectors as to how Member States can apply current EU law to this branch of the economy:

• Market access: restrictions or bans for service providers are only permitted if these are proportional. Online platforms are to be completely exempt from market hurdles.
• Responsibility: online platforms also have to be exempt from the liability of information, unless they themselves offer services. Taking action against unlawful online contents is voluntary.
• Consumer protection: Member States shall retain the highest standard, without imposing disproportionate hurdles for private providers.
• Taxation: online platforms and service providers are obliged to pay tax. They are required to cooperate with the competent authorities.

Position of the Chamber of Labour

In its Position paper on the Single Market Strategy 2015, the Chamber of Labour has already made its position clear with regard to the participatory economy. As in contrast to traditional business models, e-commerce enterprises enjoy an unfair competitive advantage and based on this are able to generate high market shares and because many questions, among other those relating to issues that are relevant to labour law, remain open, what is needed is a clear legal framework for this new branch of the economy.

Further information:

AK Position paper

Communication of the Commission (available only in English)

Modern-day challenges for the European trade union movement