The Brussels Labour Court found in June 2025 that an Uber ride hail driver is an employee, overturning the decision of a lower court which had found in favour of Uber in December 2022.
Belgium established a new legal presumption of employment in the platform economy in 2023, but this case was first brought forward in 2020, meaning it was based on a legal presumption established for all transport services in 2013.
The court found that the driver met all but one of nine criteria for the legal presumption, with just five being necessary, therefore triggering the presumption and thus placing the evidentiary burden that the driver is not an employee on Uber.
The Silicons Valley company’s rebuttal was rejected by the court, finding that Uber had “not established the absence of a relationship of authority”.
One of Uber’s key arguments, that Uber drivers can choose their own working time and how much they work, was dismissed by the court on the basis that this did not “prevent the employer from having control over their workforce once they have accepted the work”, as it “does not imply that the person performing the work is also free to organise his working time once the assignment has been accepted”.
The judge went on to find that during the time the driver is connected to the app they do not have any “real freedom” in any ambit and clearly operate under the authority of Uber.
The ACV-CSC union welcomed the verdict but criticised the fact that drivers and riders are still overwhelmingly bogus self-employed, despite “the law and the courts in their favour”. They called on the verdict to be “quickly followed” by action by “the relevant authorities”.
The 2023 law introducing a legal presumption across the platform economy has yet to lead to any decisive action on employment re-classification, with unions criticising the lack of effective enforcement measures to accompany the law, leading workers still to rely on judicial proceedings as before.
However, the Commission for Working Relations, an administrative body, has investigated Deliveroo and Uber Eats couriers using the new legal presumption and found that the criteria to trigger the presumption is comfortably met in both cases. The two platforms are rebutting the triggering of the presumption, with judicial cases to follow.