Regulating Uncharted Waters: The EU Platform Work Directive Between Uncertainty, Lobbyism and Politicisation

Abstract In 2024, the EU adopted a much‐debated directive on improving working conditions in platform work, which aims to facilitate the correct classification of people performing platform work and regulates the use of algorithmic management. The initiative attracted intense lobbying from digital platforms and trade unions, whilst dividing the member states into sharply opposed camps. In a historic moment, a last‐minute deal was passed – without support from either France or Germany. The directive sets a marked step towards regulating the ‘future of work’, pursuing a worker‐protective rationale that serves both as a complement and a contrast to earlier market‐making interventions into the digital economy. Building critically on existing theories of EU regulation, I use this case to explore how the uncertainty associated with new socio‐economic problems creates an ‘ambiguous tolerance’ amongst member states for supranational guidance, which is leveraged by the Commission in its agenda‐setting capacity, whilst limiting the influence of organised interests. Based on policy documentation, 32 interviews and secondary sources, this article reconstructs how EU policy‐makers – veering between technocratic problem‐solving and (partisan) politicisation – managed to prepare, negotiate and enact this innovative piece of legislation.