- The European Observatory of Multinationals, Observatoire des Multinationals, in its official name, has shown in a new report that the gigantic new distribution platforms such as Uber, Bolt or Deliveroo are pushing for the directive to be amended by the European Union not to take account of the contracting conditions required by its workers. This lobbying work, which has been greatly strengthened in recent months, mainly uses two business associations, several lobbies agencies and some think tanks that, despite their neutral appearances, publish studies of interest to companies.
The Multinational Observatory, in its Uber Files 2 report, explained that in Brussels, the European Union’s administrative capital, the new platform companies have been working intensively in the lobby, which has revolutionized economic activity in taxi services, food distribution and other matters. Deliveroo, Uber, and the others, which are already integrated into everyday routines of citizens, have close relations with the European authorities, in particular, the relationship of platforms with the French President, Emmanuel Macron, has been discussed on many occasions.
But since in recent months, in December 2021, Ursula von der Leyen expressed the inclusion of the topic of platforms in the political agenda, the lobbying work of these companies has increased considerably. In fact, in 2021 the European Commission began to analyse the working conditions that these new digital platforms and their employees impose to decide on a new directive for this important sector. As any legal change can threaten your interests, these platforms have multiplied the funds and forces involved in the lobby, mainly Uber, Deliveroo, Bolt, Wolt, Free Now, Delivery Hero and Glovo.
The numbers speak raw. The European Commission, at the drafting stage of the law, met more than a hundred times with representatives of the platforms. And these platforms have multiplied investments in the lobby sector based on the information that lobbies have made public about their work. The company Wolt, a Finnish food and property delivery platform, declared in 2020 a single lobby operation in Brussels, if it has already taken over this year.
“But that – writes Lora Verheeck on the website of the Multinational Observatory – is nothing but the tip of the iceberg. In fact, the report gathers the data made public by the official documents of the European Commission and the European lobbyists, so the report does not give a full picture of the impact of the platforms.” Firstly, there are large lawyers’ offices, such as Linklaters, which in Brussels are carrying out this activity in the European Transparency Register.
Lora Verheeck summarises the arguments used by lobbies and platforms defending their interests against the new European directive: “In the many meetings held with Committee officials and leaders, they have repeatedly repeated the same arguments. Uber and the other platforms say that their workers have very good working conditions, very good salaries and are very happy with the work they have found. The multinationals have another much-loved argument in times of economic crisis: job blackmail. Uber’s CEO acknowledged to its funders that the company could make a profit even if it offered workers employment contracts; however, he told the European Commission that if a new European law of yours gives workers more social rights and better wages, it will result in the loss of 50 large companies. In short, platforms are not very different from other industries when trying to subdue the law to their interests. That is why they use the same methods of lobbying [from other industries]. As the European big employers – and Uber is a member of one of them, BusinessEurope – the platforms also require them to set the rules and codes of conduct, without any limitation and without any kind of disregard, litigation or sanction.”
