Examining recent initiatives to ensure labour rights for platform workers in the European Union to tackle the problem of domination

Abstract

This article discusses how recent European Commission and European Parliament initiatives have taken two paths to protect platform workers from the domination of platforms and norms: clarifying who should have access to labour rights and removing the applicability of EU competition law. It will become clear that all the initiatives of both kinds face significant challenges, hampering their effectiveness in ensuring freedom from domination for platform workers. This article concludes by arguing that the best way to tackle domination of platform workers in the EU would be to put the idea of inequality of bargaining power at the centre of the analysis, making policy initiatives less dependent on elusive definitions and expanding the reach of labour law.