Collective or Collusive Agreements?

The world of work, and indeed the Treaty itself, has changed considerably since the Court first examined the issue of competition law and collective bargaining agreements in the Albany decision. Exempting only those categorised as employees from the scope of Article 101 is no longer adequate to address the imbalance of bargaining power recognised by the Court. Although recognition of the ‘false self-employed’ in FNV went some way towards acknowledging the atypical position of some workers, confusion also stemmed from this intermediary category, which led to inconsistent approaches across Member States. The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, the increased digitisation of the world of work, and a prominent decision at international level finally prompted the Commission to take action to remedy the uncertainty, by introducing Guidelines on the application of Article 101 to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons. The purpose of this paper is thus to critically analyse the likely effectiveness of these Guidelines, focusing on their substance and form respectively, while also exploring potential avenues for the Commission and the Court to provide increased legal certainty for solo self-employed persons seeking to collectively bargain, against the backdrop of an increasingly social understanding of the Treaties. Collective bargaining, Solo self-employed, Albany exception, Interpretative guidelines, Enforcement priorities, Non-competition concerns