This new study presented by the AK shines a light on the various ways big platform companies like Uber, Airbnb, Amazon, Deliveroo and Co actively influence European officials in the policy making process. Through meetings behind closed doors with high level officials of the European Commission, job offers and numerous corporate lobbyists, think tanks as well as business associations these internet platforms try to convince the policy makers of their interpretation of existing directives – already showing success in many fields.

Overall, three objectives from the platform lobbying become apparent from the case examples and data collected by the study. First, these platforms want to secure their status as “providers of information services”, which allows them to refuse cooperation with authorities and to bypass approvals. Second, they aim at restricting the intervention opportunities of authorities and, last, they want to prevent that public interest provisions apply to them, such as the current debate as to what makes a company an “employer”. The study shows by which ways these companies’ lobbying has been successful thus far and how they were able to achieve these goals to the detriment of their employees.