An inquiry into the guidelines on the application of EU competition law to collective agreements concerning the working conditions of the solo self-employed

Giampà, Gianluca (author)

The purpose of this article is to examine the compatibility of collective agreements for self-employed persons with the principles of European competition law. According to European law, self-employed persons are considered to be on equal footing with companies, thus making them susceptible to violating competition rules by entering into agreements on working conditions. The judgments of the European Court of Justice in the Albany and FNV Kunsten cases have established that collective agreements for self-employed persons are not generally exempted from the rules prohibiting restrictions on competition. However, considering the protection needs of numerous self-employed persons, a change in approach seems necessary. In 2022, the European Commission adopted Guidelines aiming to clarify the scope of EU competition law regarding collective agreements for self-employed persons. The objective is to exclude self-employed individuals who are most in need of trade union protection. However, there are some critical points in the Guidelines that warrant attention, such as the assessment of the compatibility of collective agreements for self-employed persons with competition law being conducted on an individual basis. A collective approach to the issue appears necessary instead of an individual one. Therefore, it seems appropriate to reflect on the dialectic between market freedom and social rights in European law concerning this specific issue, particularly in light of the recent proposal.

• Language: English
• Keywords: self-employment, European labour law, European competition law, labour protection
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PF - Faculty of Law
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: Str. 99-118
• Numbering: Letn. 83
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-168373
• UDC: 331.106.24:331.102.12
• ISSN on article: 1854-3839
• DOI: 10.51940/2023.1.99-118
• COBISS.SI-ID: 183596291
• Publication date in RUL: 10.04.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Zbornik znanstvenih razprav
• Shortened title: Zb. znan. razpr.
• Publisher: Pravna fakulteta
• ISSN: 1854-3839
• COBISS.SI-ID: 223437312

Licences

• License: CC BY-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
• Description: Under the NoDerivatives Creative Commons license one can take a work released under this license and re-distribute it, but it cannot be shared with others in adapted form, and credit must be provided to the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Vpogled v Smernice o uporabi konkurenčnega prava EU za kolektivne pogodbe glede delovnih pogojev samozaposlenih oseb, ki ne zaposlujejo drugih
• Keywords: samozaposlene osebe, evropsko delovno pravo, konkurenčno pravo, varstvo delavcev, kolektivne pogodbe, Evropska unija, Smernice o uporabi konkurenčnega prava EU