On April 4^th, 2023, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal issued a series of landmark rulings favouring workers’ rights toward increased transparency in the platform economy (an English summary and translation of the rulings can be found via the following link). The cases concern ride-hailing companies Uber and Ola, whose automated management systems govern drivers’ livelihoods under a veil of opacity. The Court of Appeals recognised the workers’ right to receive access to their personal data, including meaningful information regarding the logic underlying the gig platforms automated decision-making systems utilised, among others, for matching, fraud detection and dynamic pricing purposes. The rulings, therefore, reaffirmed the instrumental value transparency and access rights have in the realisation of effective redress.

To present and discuss these rulings, the Institute for Information Law is happy to invite Dr Anton Ekker. Acting as the drivers’ legal representative, Dr. Ekker, on behalf of the App Drivers Courier Union (ADCU) and Worker Info Exchange, successfully challenged Ola and Uber’s practices via the General Data Protection Regulation’s data subject rights. Still, these cases’ legal impact extends beyond data protection and information law: they acknowledge the precarity faced by workers in a digital economy characterised by unequal labour relationships and the law’s ability to combat unfair labour practices. This event is, therefore, also meant to encourage an active reflection across legal fields. To kick-start audience participation, Dr Ekker’s presentation will be followed by brief interventions by Nabil Bin Fuad (Contract Law), and Francesca Episcopo (Civil Procedure, Liability and Access to Justice) to discuss these rulings’ significance from their respective domains.
The event will be moderated by Jill Toh.

Details of the event:

Date: Thursday 8 June 2023
Time: 16.00-17.30 CET
(Amsterdam)
Place: IViR Room, REC A5.24

To participate, please register by June 6th via l.p.a.naudts@uva.nl