France : According to the criminal chamber of the French Court of Cassation, the offence of concealed work is not constituted for Click and Walk contributors

Date of decision:
05/04/2022
Platforms:

On 5 April 2022, the Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation overturned the decision of the Douai Court of Appeal of 10 February 2020, which had held that the company should have declared its contributors as employees. The Court considers that the company does not have the power, during the execution of the assignment, to control the execution of its directives and to sanction failures. The Court of Cassation could have overturned the decision of the Court of Appeal on the grounds that there was no economic dependence, given the very low remuneration of the participants. However, the Court chose to focus on the definition of the subordination link. As a result, according to the Criminal Division, the offence of concealed work is not constituted, as there is no employment contract.

It was the Central Office for the Fight against Illegal Employment that had conducted an investigation into the collaborative web marketing company Click and Walk. In 2018, Click and Walk was acquitted by the Lille criminal court. In February 2020, the Douai Court of Appeal considered that its contributors were employees, in view of the sometimes very precise missions they were given and what it considered to be the company's power to sanction, as contributors' accounts could be closed by the latter in the absence of proper performance of the proposed and accepted mission.

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