Regulating the Platform Economy: How to Protect Workers While Promoting Innovation

Abstract

The rise of the platform economy has made it a topic of great interest among European policymakers, as evidenced by the European Commission's 2016 Communication "A European agenda for the collaborative economy". The regulatory challenges facing policymakers are manifold, ranging from taxation to competition policy to worker protection. Furthermore, many basic aspects of the platform economy are unclear, such as its size, the number of workers who take part in it and, indeed, its very defi nition. What types of regulation are necessary to ensure that the benefi ts of the platform economy are maximised for all Europeans? How can the productivity gains associated with the platform economy be distributed throughout society? Perhaps most importantly, how can policymakers support innovation while also protecting consumers, workers and communities?

Digitrabes em contexto: caracterização e aspectos críticos dos trabalhadores de plataformas digitais em cinco países da Iberoamérica

“…Los algoritmos de gestión utilizan como criterio de asignación de la carga de trabajo a las puntuaciones de los clientes o seguidores, que vienen configurando un sistema de jerarquías entre trabajadores dentro de cada plataforma (Zysman et al, 2017). Así, el progreso en la plataforma y la posibilidad de "hacer carrera" allí dependen de calificaciones en algún punto impersonales o poco visibles para el trabajador.…”