ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to promote the view according to which intermediary platforms should be vicariously liable for wrongful acts committed by freelancers (e.g. Uber drivers) rendering services made available by platforms. The most characteristic feature of the phenomenon, namely the separation and delegation of work outside the entity making profit as the overall result, seems to enable the latter to escape liability for losses caused in the course of activity creating their wealth. The losses are usually not covered by the vicarious liability as known throughout Europe. This is a serious shortcoming since the vicarious liability scheme was originally designed to internalize the risks created by economic activity by allocating the burden of compensation on entrepreneurs and freeing their workers from liability. The recent development of case law where courts reject traditional view on vicarious liability by broadening its scope of the application, although applied to cases of a different type, seems to suit the losses caused within the context of the sharing economy.
