Constructing Europe’s Collaborative Economy: The Politics of Inventing a New Regulatory Space

This study examines how European officials have devised strategies and instruments to regulate the collaborative economy, a new sector of economic activity made possible by digital technologies. This new area of regulation poses a novel case for theorizing about integration of the European economy. To date, most of the EU's regulatory role has been mapped on top of a regulatory field already occupied by nation-states. Consequently, theories of European integration emphasize the dynamics of intergovernmental bargaining, functionalism and institutional constraints. The collaborative economy by contrast is a new economic activity where neither the EU nor its member states have previously played a regulatory role. The emerging role of the EU in this field, therefore, offers a unique opportunity to reexamine theories of European integration where member states no not have an a priori claim to the regulatory space. The study examines the hypothesis that EU officials are defining the collaborative economy in a way that maximizes their abilities to utilize the regulatory instruments already at their disposal and that align with major EU political objectives, such as expanding the social dimension of the EU. The study shows that when a new regulatory is constructed, functional requirements and institutional constraints are less significant than when the contours of the regulatory space are already well established. In addition, the study shows that when the EU acquires a "first mover advantage" into a new regulatory space, it can play a commanding role during intergovernmental bargaining.