Coming soon: Self-Employment Knowledge Base
On October 1, 2026, we will introduce our Self-Employment Knowledge Base. To this end, we have collected, explained and clearly structured the rules surrounding bogus self-employment throughout Europe, country by country. So that everyone who hires, places or mediates freelancers sees the complete picture at a glance.
Why now?
The EU directive on platform work (Directive EU 2024/2831) introduces a rebuttable legal presumption of an employment contract to combat false self-employment. This shifts the burden of proof to platforms and clients: if the facts of a working relationship show management and supervision, the law will from now on assume an employment relationship, and the platform or client must prove the opposite. EU member states have until December 2, 2026 to transpose the directive into national law.
Some countries are not waiting for the deadline. In the Netherlands, the Tax Authorities lifted the enforcement moratorium on the DBA Act on January 1, 2025, and from 2026 actual fines may follow in the event of demonstrable malice. Slovakia has tightened the definition of 'dependent work' and is tightening controls on bogus self-employment. And enforcement has a bite. The Spanish delivery service Glovo was fined 78.9 million euros for working with bogus self-employed people.
The challenge: fragmentation
Keeping track of one country is already a challenge. Keeping track of them all at once is virtually impossible. Each country imposes its own assessments, timelines and enforcement priorities on top of the EU base, and some national rules themselves have not yet been determined. For example, the Dutch government has now deleted the clarification part of the Clarification of Assessment of Employment Relations and Legal Presumption (Vbar) bill, and a separate Self-Employed Act will be introduced. The legal presumption for self-employed persons with a low hourly rate has already become law.
What to expect
Our Knowledge Base fills exactly that gap: one continuously updated source, broken down by country, so you always know which rules apply where and what was most recently changed. From October 1, you can browse the entire knowledge base per country, follow the status of the national implementation of the Platform Work Directive, and be explained in plain language what a rule means in practice.
Stay tuned. As the launch gets closer, you will hear more from us.
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“Close the gap before the climb.” Imagine hearing that in your earpiece with a teammate on your wheel. The team director has spotted a move up the road, and you have seconds to respond. The instruction tells you what the team needs in that moment. To understand the rider’s working relationship, it helps to look at what happens after the finish. The men’s WorldTour rules allow teams to engage self-employed riders where the applicable law permits it, and they set conditions for pay and insurance. So who sets the rider’s training schedule between races? Can the rider negotiate an extra commitment? Who bears the cost if an injury keeps them off the bike? Together, those details help show how much independence the rider has in practice and who carries the financial risk. UCI Road Regulations, Article 2.15.115 bis