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Disruption and the Law in the Digital World: Some Thoughts on the CJEU Uber Spain Judgment

Whether or not we can call Uber’s business model as disruptive innovation (admittedly, according to the author of the disruptive innovation theory, we cannot), the fact remains that it has shaken the traditional models of passenger transport industries around the world. The law does not respond well, or, better said, it is not able to react fast enough to innovations. Technological and business inventions represent a threat to legal certainty. When an innovative business model, facilitated by the use of new technologies occurs, it is usually associated with a whole array of legal issues and conundrums. The law will try desperately to fit it into the existing moulds of legal regulation. The recent Uber Spain judgment (EU:C:987:2017) by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) provides a perfect illustration for this. According to the CJEU, Uber is a transport company. This paper will analyse the arguments presented in the judgment to show how law is not able to deal with rapid technological and societal changes in today’s digital world. The implications of this judgment are far reaching, not just for Uber’s operations in the EU and world-wide, but also for other game changers in the digital economy.

EU law, transport services, information society services, single market for services, collaborative economy

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