The role of competition law in addressing worker dependency on digital labour platforms

Gabriël van Rosmalen

doi:10.71265/588dfb38

Authors

Gabriël van Rosmalen Utrecht University https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9018-2917

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.71265/588dfb38

Keywords:

Digital labour platforms, Competition law, Platform workers, Economic dependency

Abstract

This article explores the role of EU competition law in addressing the economic dependence of workers on digital labour platforms. It traces how platform design erodes the outside options of self-employed workers and develops the notion of relative market power to capture this vertical dependence in competition-law terms. The article links this analysis to the normative foundations of EU competition law and draws on the ordoliberal idea of freedom as non-domination. It contends that economic dependence should be treated as a structural concern for competition law and considers how ex-post control and ex-ante duties could respond to this form of platform power.

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Author Biography

Gabriël van Rosmalen, Utrecht University

Gabriël is a PhD candidate at Utrecht University working at the intersection of EU competition law and political philosophy. His research examines how European competition law and related regulatory tools can address structural power imbalances in the platform economy. It focuses in particular on improving the working conditions of self-employed platform workers. He is affiliated with RENFORCE (Utrecht Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe).

During his PhD, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford (2024) and the University of Bologna (2025). He also worked as a trainee at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) in Brussels.

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