Communication on collaborative economy

Key points

The EESC:

• faced with the new paradigm of a decentralised digital economy, is of the view that it should be ensured that this is not accompanied by job insecurity and tax avoidance, and that the value added does not massively shift away from industrial players towards the owners of proprietary digital platforms;
• calls on the Commission to pay attention to digital platforms, in order to regulate and harmonise their activity and ensure a level playing field on the basis of transparency, information, full access, non-discrimination and appropriate use of data;
• calls for the development of a specific methodology for regulating and measuring a new economy with different standards, with the value of trust playing a central role;
• recommends that a permanent horizontal structure be created to analyse these emerging phenomena.

Other relevant EESC opinions

• Collaborative or participatory consumption: a sustainable model for the 21st century (INT/686 - CESE 2788/2013)
• Sharing economy and Self-regulation (INT/779 - CESE 933/2016)
• The functional economy (INT/784 - ongoing)
• Circular economy (NAT/651 - CESE 5002/2014)
• The circular economy: job creation and the Green Action Plan for SMEs (NAT/652 - CESE 5003/2014)
• Building a sustainable economy by transforming our model of consumption (INT/497 - CESE 959/2010)
• Economy for the Common Good (ECO/378 - CESE 2060/2015)

For more information please contact the INT Section Secretariat.