The Deliveroo platform, sentenced in April for “
concealed work
” to the maximum fine of 375,000 euros, appealed, we learned Thursday from its lawyer Antonin Lévy.
The company was found guilty by the Paris Criminal Court of having employed delivery people as freelancers, rather than paying them, between 2015 and 2017.
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Deliveroo was on trial alongside three ex-executives, who also appealed their convictions, their respective lawyers confirmed to AFP.
Two successive managers during the period in question had been sentenced for “
concealed work
” to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 30,000 euros, together with a ban on running a business for five years, suspended.
A third executive, found guilty of "
complicity in concealed work
", had been given a four-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros.
In its judgment, the court considered that Deliveroo had put in place "
a fictitious legal dressing that does not correspond to the reality of the professional exercise of delivery people
", explained the president of the 31st correctional chamber in rendering her decision on April 19. .
“
In this case, the disturbance caused to the economic, social and fiscal public order is major
,” she underlined.
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In March, at the end of a week of hearing - the first criminal trial of "
uberization
" in France - the prosecutor had regretted the absence, on the bench of the defendants, of the American William Shu, boss of the British company, "
unquestionably
" at the origin of the "
system
" which allowed Deliveroo to benefit from "
all the advantages of the employer (...) without the disadvantages
".
Deliveroo maintained that it was only "
connecting
" customers, restaurateurs and deliverers, and denied "
any relationship of subordination
".
Highly contested, the independent status of Uber drivers or Deliveroo couriers is called into question in many countries by the courts or, more rarely, by specific laws which have prompted certain giants in the sector to propose compromises.
