This article examines
the intricate relationship between competition law and collective rights in EU
regulations, critically assessing whether and to what extent self-employed
workers can exercise collective rights based on the Court of Justice of the
European Union (CJEU) case law. Additionally, it considers the European
Commission’s recent initiative to acknowledge and expand the collective
dimension of self-employed workers. To address the specific collective rights
of genuine self-employed workers, the Commission, acting in its capacity as the
EU’s competition authority, has taken steps in the Guidelines on the
Application of Union Competition Law to Collective Agreements to steer towards
a renewed interpretation of the scope of application of Article 101 of the
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), with the aim of
excluding collective bargaining agreements concluded by or on behalf of certain
categories of soloself-employed workers from its scope.
In light of this move,
the article provides a critical analysis of the Guidelines and evaluates the degree
to which the current EU legal framework aligns with fundamental collective
rights. while attempting to offer renewed hermeneutical solutions to alter the
consolidated line of systematic construction of the relationship between
collective rights and competition law.