Ana Pošćić

Making a Living in the ‘Gig’ Economy: Last Resort or a Reliable Alternative?

Modern work arrangements in the collaborative or ‘gig’ economy challenge and redefine traditional work patterns. Extensive scholarly writings in the last years have been dedicated to revealing the true nature and implications of such work, and this topic is a matter of heated debates. However, empirical research on the prevalence of ‘gig’ work is still relatively scarce and not reliable enough to reach any definite conclusions or provide prospective outlooks. This contribution does not aspire to analyse all open issues associated with the work in the ‘gig’ economy but instead attempts to bring only the most pressing issues to the forefront.

State Aid and Gambling Services

The combination of public goals and fiscal interests collides with the need to harmonise and liberalise the gambling market. Although the trend of market liberalisation is omnipresent, liberalisation is not an imperative. Member States are, in principle, free to regulate these issues, provided that they comply with the principles of EU law, especially competition and State aid rules. The focus of this paper is on the possible application of State aid rules in the field of gambling. Though the debate on State aid in the area of gambling has gained momentum, it has not been followed by a proliferation of corresponding case law. So far, the Commission has adopted only a few decisions, some of which have been challenged before the General Court. These will be analysed in this article. Special attention is given to the controversal OPAP decision, which has been subject to a lot of discussion.

Think Globally, Act Regionally: How Europeanisation Enhances Consumer Welfare?

Globalisation radically affects human lives, but is it capable of bringing welfare and how? To answer this question, one has to narrow down his/her view to a regional counterpart of globalisation, that is, Europeanisation. More specifically, the focus of this paper is on the effect of Europeanisation processes in the field of consumer welfare. Is “fundamentalisation” of consumer rights possible and attainable in unequal societies, in the world of winners and losers? This paper aims to explore how the EU and economic subjects on the internal market can be global players in the merciless world of global competition but at the same time protect consumer welfare.

Precarious Times, Precarious Work: Lessons from Flexicurity

The intention of this paper is to re-think the concept of precariousness of labour relations, which is rising in times of uncertainty, and to examine whether a potential answer to this challenge lies in flexicurity, or, on the other hand, whether flexicurity creates an ever bigger gap between insiders and outsiders in the labour market.

The Court's Jurisprudence on the Free Movement of Goods – the Market Access Approach

The purpose of this paper is to analyse specific rules concerning free movement of goods, especially measures that may hinder market access. Articles 34 and 35 of the Treaty of the Functioning the European Union (hereinafter: TFEU) prohibit quantitative restrictions on imports and exports and all measures having equivalent effect as quantitative restrictions between all Member States. The European Court of Justice (hereinafter: ECJ) dealt with a number of cases concerning Articles 34 and 35 TFEU. Even after numerous cases, rules concerning time, place and manner of marketing products (the so-called market circumstances rules) remained problematic. The ECJ thought that it was time to reconsider the outer limits of the Articles 34 and 36 TFEU. It is a Keck ruling that divided regulations into two parts: selling arrangements and product-bound measures. According to Keck, non-discriminatory national measures restricting or prohibiting selling arrangements are permissible and fall outside the scope of the Article 34 TFEU. Keck was followed by many cases, which partly clarified the remaining ambiguities. There were borderline cases where it could be argued that the rule concerned a certain selling arrangement, but the ECJ held it was product requirement. Thus, in an attempt to resolve the problems surrounding the market circumstances rules, the ECJ created further difficulties. Particular attention is paid to the ECJ’s jurisprudence after the Trailers case, where the Court revisited the principles of the free movement of goods and attempted to provide a new concept of a definition of prohibition of free movement of goods. According to that definition any discriminatory measure, including product requirements, and any other measure that hinders market access are covered by that concept. It has been concluded that the ECJ attempted to provide a new category of measures that are neither a product requirement nor the selling arrangements. Those measures hinder access of products originating in other states to the market of a Member State.