The European Commission has clarified laws that previously prohibited self employed workers from collectively bargaining for better working conditions, in a big win for gig workers and food couriers. 

Previously, Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU ruled that solo workers breached competition laws when collectively negotiating, as they were considered undertakings that could risk infringing on competition laws when negotiating collectively on their fees or other trading conditions.  

However, clarification of the article now rules that competition law does not apply to self-employed workers who:

•  Provide services exclusively or predominantly to one undertaking
•  Work side-by-side with workers
•  Provide services to or through a digital labour platform. 

These clarifications were considered especially pertinent as the Commission recognised that many self-workers were in a weak negotiating position against large companies with massive resources. 

This is likely to be a big boost for Irish workers’ unions, who have been negotiating for better working conditions for food couriers from aggregate food delivery apps such as Deliveroo and JustEat. 

In Association with

Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner for Competition, said: “Solo self-employed people in the digital economy and beyond may not be able to individually negotiate good working terms and therefore may face difficult working conditions. Getting together to collectively negotiate can be a powerful tool to improve such conditions.

“The new Guidelines aim to provide legal certainty to the solo self-employed people by clarifying when competition law does not stand in the way of their efforts to negotiate collectively for a better deal.”

The Commission will monitor how these guidelines are reflected at national level through the European Competition Network and dedicated meetings with European Social Partners, and will review its guidelines by 2030.

However, the scope of the Guidelines is not limited to solo self-employed people working through digital labour platforms and also covers situations of solo self-employed people active in the offline economy.