France’s top court last week decided an Uber driver should be considered an employee, Reuters reported [1]. The Cour de Cassation upheld a previous decision by a court of appeal, which said the Uber driver could not qualify as a self-employed contractor because he could not build his own clientele or set his own prices.
“The criteria for self-employment notably relate to the possibility of constituting one’s own clientele, the freedom to set tariffs and the freedom to define the conditions for the performance of its service provision,” none of which applies to Uber drivers, the Cour de Cassation said.
“The driver who uses the Uber application does not constitute his own clientele, does not freely set his prices and does not determine the conditions of performance of his transport service,” according to court documents [2].
The decision could have ramifications for the wider gig economy in France, Reuters reported, as other taxi and food delivery apps — from Deliveroo and Just Eat-Takeaway to UberEats — rely heavily on self-employed riders to conduct their business without having to meet a range of employee costs and benefits.