The current EU Commission has promised to improve the working conditions of gig workers, which are regularly self-employed, without EU competition law standing in the way. DG Comp followed up on this promise and launched an initiative in January 2021 to explore a variety of policies to avoid EU competition law denying self-employed access to concluding collective agreements.
In the forthcoming paper “I’ll Call My Union”, Said The Driver – Collective Bargaining Of Gig Workers Under EU Competition Rules” (ERT 2021 nr. 2), the authors discuss a variety of options for EU competition policy makers and courts to accommodate collective bargaining of gig workers under EU Competition law. They look for inspiration in general EU law, tax and social security law, as well as US antitrust law. The drawbacks and benefits of these options together with the options presented by the EU Commission will be discussed during the seminar by two authors of the paper, Christian Bergqvist and Maria José Schmidt-Kessen.
Maria José Schmidt-Kessen is assistant professor in EU Commercial Law at Copenhagen Business School (CBS Law). Previously, she worked as postdoctoral researcher and teaching assistant at Queen Mary University London. She received her PhD from the European University Institute in Florence with a dissertation on the interaction of IP law and competition law in the EU legal system in 2018. Her main research areas are competition law, IP law and the regulation of new technologies.
Christian Bergqvist is an associate professor in competition law at the University of Copenhagen, with a particular interest in the application of competition law to deregulated and network-tied sectors (telecom, energy, post and transport) and abuse of dominance in general and within these sectors. Christian Bergqvist has extensive experience in competition law as an academician and practitioner. Before becoming a full-time academician Christian Bergqvist served as a lawyer at Tier 1-law firms, representing clients before the judicial and administrative bodies, on competition law matters.
The seminar is a digital seminar. Zoom-link will be sent upon registration.
Welcome!
Jaan Paju
Director