Decent Work in the Digital Age by Gyulavári Tamás;Menegatti Emanuele;

Author:Gyulavári, Tamás;Menegatti, Emanuele;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2022-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

10

Competition Law Implications of Platform Work

TIHAMÉR TÓTH

I.Introduction

The unprecedented space of technological development and digitalisation is reshaping many industries and is creating new markets. Platform work creates new opportunities for individuals and businesses, but also presents regulatory challenges. Some of them emerge as gatekeepers of the digital economy. Questions are asked whether antitrust is suitable for the task of dealing with the complexity and pace of these changes.

I will explore the question whether the traditional antitrust concept of an undertaking can provide a meaningful basis to understand and evaluate the developments in digital platform markets. The clear lines we used to draw between hierarchical labour relations versus actions among business actors supplying goods to serve consumer demand have been blurred. Traditional labour relations are evolving, and the pace of change is accelerated by the mandatory restrictions and voluntary adaptations following the global Covid-19 pandemic. Existing roles have been recalibrated, new tasks have been defined. Traditional distinctions between working as an employee and working as an individual entrepreneur are not evident any more. All this may impact the well-established labour exemption under competition rules. In addition, the realm of platform work is fairly heterogeneous: some types of platform work may be subject to competition rules while others may not.

The chapter discusses the interactions of labour law and competition law in the ‘gig’ economy with special regard to the characterisation of digital platform workers as potential subjects of competition law. Section II starts with a discussion of the personal scope of competition rules. I summarise how European and United States (US) competition laws deal with actions involving natural persons. I will discuss traditional examples like professional services, taxi drivers and professional sportsmen which may be used as analogy when we discuss the gig economy. In section III, I will present the labour specific exemption both (European Union) EU and US case law has developed.

In section IV, I will discuss some of the features of platform services like Uber which may impact the classification of workers as employees or undertakings. Next, assuming that individuals in some platform markets are subject to competition rules, I will explore how their cooperation can be evaluated under rules prohibiting anticompetitive agreements. I will conclude that broadening the scope of competition rules to cover gig-economy relations would not necessarily obstruct the operation of these new businesses.

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