Employed or Self-Employed: the Problem of Regulating Platform Work in the EU

The article analyses the process of decision-making to regulate platform work in the European Union. The author underlines that the EU strived to introduce legal certainty and improve the working conditions of platform workers. Despite the fact that many platform workers are classified as self-employed, their status remains unclear, since it is often difficult to distinguish between real and bogus self-employment, which the employer uses to evade social payments. There are two key principles of the new directive: it allows to determine correctly the status of people working on digital platforms, and sets rules for the use of algorithmic systems in the workplace. At the same time, the conclusion is drawn that the difference in approaches among member states, political groups of the European Parliament, and EU institutions turns the regulation of platform employment into the most controversial EU files, resulting in the adoption of compromise legislation on minimum standards.