The European Commission has no intention of regulating the collaborative economy, at least not at this stage. On Wednesday 19 October during a conference organised on the initiative of the Liberal Democrats (ALDE) at the European Parliament, European Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness Jyrki Katainen made this quite clear.
In his preamble, Katainen stated: "If you think we need a European approach, we can discuss it. But we're not ready to regulate immediately".
This statement should not come as a surprise. On 2 June, the Commission published a communication advising member states not to provide rules that were too strict and which could hamper the potential of the collaborative economy (see EUROPE 11564). In the communication it distinguishes between intermediation platforms (restricted to relations between service providers and users) and service platforms (payments, identity control, cleaning). It suggested that they should only apply a body of rules that was limited to the former and should proceed to a case-by-case assessment of the latter. This communication was given a positive welcome by the ALDE Group, which supports developing the collaborative economy in Europe.
Benita Matosfka, the founder of The People Who Share (a company that helps collaborative ventures), praised the advantages of this new kind of model and argued: "This is kind of economy has incontestable social and environmental effects. For example, sharing a car replaces 9-13 individual cars (…) The collaborative economy is not a threat but an opportunity". She called for the introduction of incentives to collaborate rather than new rules.
Asked about the impact of this kind of economy on working conditions, Katainen said that the communication tries to define ways of assessing this issue. "People in the same situation must be treated in the same way. When there is a problem, one needs to resolve it rather than kill a whole sector", he said. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)