The European Union promotes Uber, airbnb and the other platforms of the sharing economy. The new guidelines of the EU Commission, in fact, allow the total ban of these apps only as an "extreme measure", also asking for a distinction between those who make their car or home available occasionally and those who, instead, make it a full-time work, establishing “minimum thresholds under which an economic activity can be considered a non-professional activity among equals without having to comply with the same requirements applicable to a service provider operating on a professional basis”. Above all, Brussels is targeting the practice of licenses and authorizations for the exercise of services which should be admitted "only when strictly necessary to achieve relevant objectives in the public interest".
In any case, those of Brussels they are not legally binding indications, even if they could be used, from now on, to open any infringement procedures. However, it will be up to the member states to decide when and how to adapt national legislation, following these indications.
For Uber another victory, after the investment from $3,5 billion from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which brings the sharing economy giant to a monstrous valuation of 68 billion dollars.
The Commission's decision, however, had been in the air for some time: according to the commissioner for the internal market Elzbieta Bienkowska, "a total ban on these activities cannot be imposed if the reason is to protect existing business models and if the fiscal, social and consumer protection”.
