An Assessment of the EU’s Draft Guidelines on the Application of EU Competition Law to Collective Agreements of the Solo Self-Employed

On December 9, 2021, the European Commission published its draft Guidelines on collective bargaining for solo self-employed persons. The Guidelines aim to remove existing competition law restrictions to collective bargaining for vulnerable solo self-employed people. This article provides an overview and initial assessment of the draft Guidelines. After demonstrating the reasons that led to the adoption of the new instrument (part 1), the article analyses its protective provisions (part 2) and assesses its potential impact (part 3). As it is explained, even though the draft Guidelines go a long way in providing protection to a large category of self-employed persons, they (i) do not capture all those who are in need of protection; (ii) do not address issues regarding the application of Article 101 to decisions of associations of self-employed persons-undertakings or agreements between self-employed persons-undertakings concluded outside the context of collective bargaining negotiations that concern the improvement of their working conditions; and (iii) do not address the possible application of Article 102 to collective agreements by self-employed persons-undertakings.

By Despoina Georgiou*

I. BACKGROUND

On December 9, 2021, the European Commission published its draft Guidelines on the application of EU competition law to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons.^[1] The draft Guidelines are part of a package which