The European Commission launched a public consultation on Thursday 9 December, until 24 February 2022, on draft guidelines on the application of EU competition law to collective agreements concerning the working conditions of self-employed service providers without employees (also see other news).
Collective agreements are an important tool for improving working conditions. However, the self-employed are, in principle, considered to be ‘undertakings’ and risk infringing Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU if they collectively negotiate their remuneration and other conditions of their activity. The self-employed do not have the certainty of being able to participate in collective bargaining.
The Commission is consulting interested parties on draft guidelines clarifying the circumstances in which competition law does not prevent collective agreements aimed at improving the working conditions of certain self-employed people (people who work entirely on their own and do not employ others).
The draft guidelines: - describes the circumstances in which the self-employed without employees are comparable to workers; - clarifies that certain agreements would not trigger Commission intervention under Article 101 of the TFEU; - covers a range of solo self-employed people.
The Commission will publish the final version of the guidelines in the second quarter of 2022.
Link: https://bit.ly/3EHybEG (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)