Self-Employed Workers in the Sharing Economy and Collective Bargaining Rights – EU Competition Law As a Curse “Social Europe 4:0”?

In August 2016, drivers delivering meals in London after being booked via the platforms “deliveroo” and “UberEAT” made headlines by going on strike, challenging a the extremely low levels of pay received via these platforms. Low wages in the  sharing economy are a global phenomenon, as is the sharing economy at large, inviting comparison between the EU and the US over levels of regulation and the capacity to increase “business 4.0”. Banning cartels too is an international phenomenon, inviting equivalent comparison between the US and the EU. Specifically , the endeavours of those serving in the sharing economy to secure adequate working conditions collectively may attract the wrath of competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic, because these service providers are frequently self-employed (notwithstanding some instances of circumventing employment law). The interrelation of EU competition law and collective regulation of the sharing economy poses a new and under-theorised instance of  conflict between social and economic policy at different levels of governance: competition law  This paper investigates the perverse effects of EU level regulation of self-employed workers cooperation on the EU social model, and compares the current approaches with their counterparts in the US, attempting to unearth a constructive response to these contradictory regulatory approaches. It contributes to literature on “social Europe” in the widely neglected fields of competition law and self-regulation in new marginalised markets for work