On 9 December, the European Commission published draft Guidelines on the application of EU competition law to collective agreements on the working conditions of solo self-employed people providing services. The draft Guidelines are the product of an initial impact assessment published this time last year and a subsequent consultation with stakeholders from March to May. They are wide in scope, defining solo self-employed people as “persons who do not have an employment contract or who are not in an employment relationship and who rely primarily on their own personal labour for the provision of the services concerned”. The practical relevance of the Guidelines is that solo self-employed people now have the certainty that they can discuss and agree on collective actions essentially as if they were employees. Put bluntly: a “union” of solo self-employed persons is not a cartel.
The draft Guidelines address the issue that, although collective agreements are usually an important means of protecting and improving working conditions for employees, individuals who work completely on their own and do not employ others risk infringing Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) if they collectively negotiate their working conditions. Article 101 is a competition measure superficially unrelated to employment or the workplace, but which could have inadvertent reach into this arena in those circumstances. It prohibits as anti-competitive “all agreements...
Actress Nana faces a crucial legal moment today as the appeal sentencing trial is held for a man in his 30s, identified as A, who broke into her home and later counter-sued her. The Seoul High Cou...