Deliveroo v FNV · ECLI:NL:HR:2023:443
Supreme Court of the Netherlands · 24 March 2023
Deliveroo’s Dutch riders worked under contracts that described them as independent. They had freedom over whether to take work and could arrange a substitute. The trade union FNV brought proceedings seeking recognition that the riders worked under employment contracts.
Why the union’s judgment stood
The Supreme Court upheld the appeal court’s conclusion. Classification required looking at all the circumstances together, including how the work and pay were organised and the practical significance of the contractual freedoms. The option to send another rider did not decide the question on its own. Nor did the freedom to log on or off settle what relationship existed during the deliveries actually performed.
What a rider can show
Make a short record of one delivery from offer to payment. Note who fixed the fee, whether the rider negotiated, who bore costs, and how substitution worked in practice. Evidence about running an independent business or finding one’s own customers also matters. The judgment concerned the arrangements proved in the Deliveroo litigation. A claim about another platform requires evidence about that platform’s arrangements.
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