By December 2, 2026 every EU country must flip the burden of proof: where a platform directs and controls how you work, the law presumes you are an employee, and the company has to prove otherwise. It is a floor, not an instant contract, and each state writes its own trigger: already strong in Spain, softer elsewhere.
- The Commission reckons about 5.5 million of the EU's 28 million platform workers may be misclassified as self-employed.
- Algorithmic rules apply to everyone: a human, not software, must suspend or fire you, and you can demand the reasons.
- The US is moving the other way: no federal presumption, Prop 22 keeps California drivers as contractors, and a 2024 labor rule is being scrapped.
Same December, two roads. Europe just picked the workers' one.
