SynthesisHow is the collaborative economy approached by competition law?
Introduction
Béatrice Charlier-Bonatti President, Honorary Chamber, Commercial Court of Paris
1. Considered as the model for the future of the economy, the collaborative economy refers to a new form of disintermediated consumption and commercial exchange enabled by the Internet that allows the sharing or exchange of goods or services between individuals.
2. The collaborative economy, strictly speaking, is based on a mutualisation of goods, spaces and tools (use rather than possession, in the logic of the economy of sharing), the organisation of citizens into "networks" or communities and intermediation via Internet platforms.
3. Today, the collaborative economy represents 9 000 start-ups around the world with a turnover of 15 billion dollars, which could reach 335 billion dollars in 2025.
4. It is this new form of competition, semi-professional, semi-regulated (or even not), ultra-technological, networked competition that is most worrying today. The risk of social insecurity is often put forward, at the risk of ignoring the choice of the French to diversify their sources of income, to leave the traditional framework of hierarchical relations, which seems to be disregarded by generations Y and following...