Difficult not to notice them as they are omnipresent in the urban landscape. Wandering through the towns, the bicycle delivery men and their funny turquoise square backpack, stamped " Deliveroo ", have become legions. A pioneer of its kind, Deliveroo has established itself as the essential star of companies specializing in the delivery of meals at home, via a digital platform. In 2018, it claimed nearly 95 million in turnover in France. However, its business model - like that of its competitors - which relies on independent deliverers is strongly criticized in many countries around the world. Precarious working conditions, ambiguity of the statute ... uberization is also under the yoke of French justice.
Read also: The French Supreme Court reclassifies the link between Uber and a driver as an “employment contract”
While the Court of Cassation has just delivered a historic judgment on March 2, finding that the independent status of an Uber driver is " fictitious ", Le Parisien reveals in its columns that French justice has seized three million euros on the Parisian accounts of the giant Deliveroo , in May 2019. This judicial seizure, carried out “ as a precautionary measure ”, comes within the framework of an investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor's office in 2018 for “ execution of work concealed in the 'against several people and abuse of fixed-term contracts '.
" Deliveroo has seen its model confirmed several times in France (...), confirming that the company offers deliverers independent work ," the company told Le Figaro , and said it had " confidence in its model. "
The money of the British company is currently kept by the Agency for the management and recovery of seized and confiscated assets (Agrasc). Also according to the daily, for the period 2015-2016, Urssaf evaluated at six million euros the amount of social contributions not paid by Deliveroo for its 2000 Parisian couriers (they are nearly 11,000 in France). The amount taken from the firm's accounts would therefore correspond to part of these contributions. Presumed innocent while awaiting a possible trial, Deliveroo is in the crosshairs of the French labor inspectors and Urssaf after the experts noted many ambiguities inherent in the statutes of their self-employed deliverymen.
If Deliveroo has won several lawsuits in Europe, the company was however condemned last February for “ hidden work ”, by the industrial tribunal of Paris. A first in France.
This is the issue at the heart of the legal setbacks that accumulate for delivery platforms and other hybrid bikes: the status of workers attached to its applications. Regarding the judgment of the Court of Cassation, this is the very first time in France that a court has reclassified an employment contract as the contractual relationship between Uber and one of its drivers. " It takes up a certain number of judgments taken in the world, " commented this Friday morning the president of Medef Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, on BFMTV. “ When a freelancer cannot choose his prices and timetables, then he is not free and that means that he is not independent. Platforms must leave some form of freedom to those who work for them. I think we have to imagine for these ordering platforms, a hybrid system between independence and employees with a form of financial contribution to social protection ”.
Deliveroo assures for its part that it " gives freedom " to " thousands of employees " to " choose themselves when and where to work ". " The delivery people tell us above all they favor flexibility ."