Matías Pérez del Castillo and Miguel Casanova have participated in the book “Disruption, Sharing Economy and Law”, together with prestigious colleagues specialized in different areas.
The book addresses the role of Law vis-à-vis the emergence of online platform-based businesses, sites or applications which gave rise to the Sharing Economy phenomenon.
There are several examples of services affected by this reality. Regarding transport of passengers, the service provided by Uber competes with traditional taxis. In relation to household domestic services, the service provided through Helping competes with domestic workers. Laundries are struggling against the service provided by FlyCleaners. Home delivery gastronomic services are coping with Chefly, which offers home cooks on demand. Etcétera.
In the light of this reality, Gustavo Gauthier (coordinator) in the book’s preface points out that the business proposed by sharing economy is generally situated out of the reach of the regulations under which traditional businesses and companies operate. He identifies three challenges. One first challenge which the companies developing under the framework of sharing economy face is the difficulty of being subject to various types of regulations, foreseen for other realities or businesses and where there frequently appear such large imbalances that make them inapplicable in many cases.
A second challenge is the necessary re-analysis of the current legal framework in the light of this new reality in order to determine to what extent do current regulations protect or are applicable to the activities of sharing economy companies. The third challenge consists of determining whether the peculiarities of sharing economy require new and specific regulations.
The book provides an analysis of these challenges from the perspective of various different legal areas.
Miguel Casanova is in charge of the study from a Commercial Law standpoint.
Matías Pérez del Castillo is in charge of the analysis of Collective Labor Law.
The study of individual labor aspects is carried out by Gustavo Gauthier and by Professor Alvaro Rodríguez Azcúe as regards social security matters. The IT Law perspective is being carried out by Professor María José Viega. Professor Jaime Sapolinski is in charge of the Public Law perspective, complemented by the administrative law perspective carried out by Professor Cristina Vázquez. Lastly, tax issues are being studied by Florencia Tarrech.