What Swiss Law Can Teach and Learn About the Sharing Economy: The Case of Uber

Abstract

The paper focuses on the legal definition of Uber business model, which became a real legal dilemma for the interpretation and application of the actual legal frameworks, also in a comparative perspective. The main reason is its plastic nature, perceived as something between an online platform and an effective provider of transportation services. We first examine the main operational characteristics of Uber, for then approaching the definitory issue from the perspective of the average user of the application, keeping in mind the impact that a correct definition has on consumers’ rights to a transparent and correct communication as well as to the ability of the law to assure an organic development, especially in terms of protection of weaker parties, of the sharing or collaborative economy, of which Uber represents a leading case. Recent technological developments have dramatically accelerated the transition from a society based on consumption of goods to another based on the use of services traded by online platforms. These fast-responding actors have opened various markets, typically populated by a limited number of organised actors, to a huge number of free-lancers. In the second part the paper takes the perspective of the Uber drivers and examine the relevant aspects emerging from their contractual relationship with Uber, for then concluding with the analysis of those definitions that were already given to Uber by the regulators in the United States and the interesting law proposal pending before the Canton of Geneva. The exam of the cases based on Swiss Law, in comparison with the ones of the United States and the European Union, allows to shed light on the apparent paradox that providing a service on-line is treated differently than off-line and to determine how a legal system can offer protection to weaker parties regardless of the channel, device or medium used to implement a certain commercial pratice either via a technologically neutral interpretation of the existing laws or with the introduction of new tailor-made regulations.