OREANDA-NEWS. IRU cautiously welcomes the European Commission’s Communication on the Collaborative Economy. It offers guidelines to Member States on how to deal with new digital platforms, but some aspects remain vague.

IRU argues that the voluntary guidelines define transport network companies (TNC) as providing ‘underlying services’. They should therefore be subject to the relevant sector-specific regulations. This reinforces IRU’s position that those providing similar services should be governed by the same rules.

Sonila Metushi, who leads IRUs work on taxis and hire cars with drivers said, “As well as outlining the ‘same service, same rules’ principle, the report also categorises drivers for TNCs as ‘traders’, thereby treating them as professional actors. I also very much welcome the urging of Member States to make clear the difference between the genuine sharing economy and the profit-making collaborative economy.”

In addition IRU welcomes the underlining of the point that all collaborative economy platforms, like all economic operators, are subject to taxation rules. The yearly review of this sector of the digital single market is also broadly welcomed. IRU fully embraces this process and will continue to lead the debate and cooperate with Member States and the European Commission on the fair regulation of transport service providers.

Hubert Andela, President of the IRU Taxi Group said, “Member States should continue to properly implement the existing law. There cannot be one rule for new digital players and another rule for everyone else. The European Commission confirms this. I look forward to upcoming European Court of Justice Rulings that will add more clarity to these guidelines”.