Eurofound’s platform economy database provides information on 296 initiatives and court cases that exist or have been implemented in relation to activities in the platform economy. The database was last updated in February 2023 and provides metadata for each entry, such as geographical scope, year, type of initiative, actors involved, sector and companies concerned. Initiatives include legal instruments such as legislative changes or court decisions, as well as voluntary interventions undertaken by different stakeholders to address issues around platform work.

 IPS Journal (24.03.2023) Excessive reliance on algorithmic management has raised concerns regarding its opaque decision-making mechanisms and implication for workers

IPS Journal (21.01.2023) This year will be a crucial year for the platform economy. After the European Commission’s proposal on improving working conditions in platform work in December 2021 and long discussions in the European Parliament and Council in 2022, this year, the directive might be finally adopted – potentially impacting the lives of millions.

In the volatile and crisis-ridden European economic context, online work has grown in popularity through the adoption of technology that can help organise work, and manage and monitor workers. According to the ETUI report published in February, Juggling Online Gigs with Offline Jobs, online roles are more prevalent in European regions where there are very few opportunities to get into traditional jobs.

euobserver.com (08.03.2023) A new report published by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) highlights how platform work could be exacerbating inequality growing in the European labour market, and especially within member states themselves. Basically, it examined if regions with low availability of quality offline jobs led to more people taking more precarious online jobs. In the volatile and crisis-ridden European economic context, online work has grown in popularity through the adoption of technology that can help organise work, and manage and monitor workers.

europeandatajournalism.eu (27.03.2023) Delivery, transport, but also business services: more and more workers are opting for self-employed status by using online platforms to obtain assignments. This is a common phenomenon throughout the European Union.

euobserver.com (19.01.2023) Self-employed or employed? This question is at the heart of the negotiations of the proposal for an EU directive on improving the conditions of platform workers.

Home-delivery riders, or Uber-style app drivers are some of those who compose a sector estimated by the EU Commission to employ more than 28 million people. The number has been growing for years, and is expected to keep rising, reaching 43 million workers in the next two years.

EURACTIV.com (02.02.2023) After months of arduous negotiations, the much-debated and politically sensitive platform workers’ file was finally approved in plenary on Thursday (2 February), with 376 in favour and 212 against. The text enshrines a legal presumption of employment for self-employed platform workers and reinforces workers’ rights and protection in the face of algorithmic management.

socialeurope.eu (13.01.2022) After several reports by the labour inspectorate and contradictory judgments by the courts, in September 2020 the Supreme Court finally ruled that platform workers were employees and not self-employed workers—and that, therefore, the labour and social-security rights applying to all other workers had to apply to them as well.

ilo.org (05.01.2022) Digital labour platforms are now a vital part of contemporary life—they allow us to arrange a ride, order food and access a host of other services online. They accomplish this by connecting clients or customers with workers who undertake these tasks or “gigs”. The past decade has seen the global rise of “gig workers” or “platform workers”, with platforms like Uber, Gojek, Deliveroo, Rappi, Upwork and Topcoder. Digital labour platforms have created unprecedented opportunities for workers, businesses and society by unleashing innovation on a massive global scale.