France : Rejection of the request for requalification as an employment contract - Uber driver - Court of Appeal of Lyon

Initiators:
X
Date of decision:
19/09/2021
Platforms:

"The Court of Appeal rejected the request to reclassify the commercial relationship as an employment contract between an UBER driver and the Uber platform. The reasons given are that the recommendations made by the platform, which are part of the setting of specifications intended to guarantee the quality and safety of a service, do not characterise the employer's power of direction. The possibility of deactivating the driver's account is not sufficient to characterise the platform's power to sanction, but is "just as much like the ability of an economic actor to break off relations with its co-contractor on the grounds that he has not respected the terms of their agreement. The driver had started working as a VTC driver via the platform in March 2015. In March 2016, Uber suspended the driver's account for a fortnight due to a very high cancellation rate of his rides. His account had been reactivated in April 2016, before being deactivated in 2017. In 2019, the Conseil de prud'hommes de Lyon had declared itself incompetent, in favour of the commercial court (N° F17/01740).

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