How Europe manages the sharing economy

Four years ago, the battle for these new companies
was a commercial one. Could they prove their
viability? Which ones would emerge as the dominant
back and governments unsure of how to proceed,
the battle has moved from the streets to the courts.
She says BlaBlaCar, which is now present in 22
countries, 14 of them in the EU, has safeguards
in place to make sure it is not being used by
professionals. Drivers can only charge 50 percent
more than a price suggested by BlaBla, and cannot
carry more than four passengers.
BLABLA OR BUS?
The BlaBlaCar case is typical of the legal
situation. Entrenched transportation businesses
are suspicious of a service, that started as social
networking for people to share car costs, morphing
The company disputes that this is the case. “For us,
sharing a car is something that has always been
done,” says BlaBlaCar public policy manager Elia
Ferrer Travé. “Now because of the technology people
to accuse that person of delivering transportation
services.”
result, bus ridership has gone down by around 20
percent. However, the judge ruled that other factors
caused the decrease in bus usage, and that any
“exceptional” case.
UBER IN LUXEMBOURG
The BlaBlaCar case is easier to resolve because the
not be their prime motive.
gain?
Photo: Marco Fieber
08 — SHARING ECONOMY & EUROPE MAY 2017