Today, the California Labor Commission announced its ruling, filed in a state court on Tuesday, that Uber drivers are employees — not independent contractors. While the ruling affects only California, many sharing-economy companies are based in California, which is also their biggest market.

“This ruling will have a chilling effect on the entire sharing economy,” said Berin Szoka, President of TechFreedom. “The independent-contractor business model helped drive the success of Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and other sharing-economy companies. The Commission’s ruling could force sharing-economy companies to scale back their offerings and increase prices, which could also rob consumers of the flexibility and broad range of choices currently offered by these companies.”

###

We are available for comment at media@techfreedom.org, and see our other work on the sharing economy, especially:

  • “The FTC Should Help Unshackle the Sharing Economy,” a statement from TechFreedom and ICLE highlighting their comments filed on the FTC’s sharing economy workshop
  • “Uber run-in in Amsterdam part of larger war waged by legacy industries,” an op-ed by Evan Swarztrauber in Watchdog Arena

</>