Cross-border platform work: Riddles for free movement of workers and social security coordination

Abstract

Platform work is atypical new form of work enabled by digital technology. It is characterized by a triangular relationship between digital platform, platform worker, and client. Since it takes diverse employment forms, it poses labour law, social security law and taxation concerns in the national context. Platform work with cross-border elements is even more complex and under-researched. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide legal analysis on the relevance, riddles and challenges in the application of EU acquis on free movement of workers and social security coordination to various scenarios of cross-border platform work. It tries to identify potentially problematic EU rules and provides some reflections on their possible improvements.