On Monday [December 2, 2024], the Glovo Platform operating in Spain and owned by Delivery Hero announced that it was abandoning its current model of “cooperation” with people working for it as Delivery Partners. It announced that it would provide full employment. This happened the day before Glovo’s general manager was to testify in court. His testimony seems to be crucial in the case against the Platform’s management, in which he is accused of crimes against workers’ rights.
Below is a timeline of the events that preceded this event. For our part, we would like to point out how long this whole case lasted, despite the fact that (as we believe) the legal and political environment really favored Delivery Partners.
2015 – Glovo Platform is founded
Glovo started its operations in February 2015 in Barcelona, founded by Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud. “The Glovo team is working to create and offer the most efficient delivery service in the world by optimizing resources, enabled by new technologies and a collaborative economy model,” Pierre said at the time. In November 2015, the company announced that it had received €500,000 in funding from public entities and €1.52 million from private capital. The first cities to operate are Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia.
2018 – first court case
Some Glovo Suppliers quickly rebelled against the company’s proposed employee-employer model. Isaac Cuende, a Supplier based in Madrid, was the first to take Glovo to court. He accused the company of concealing his employment relationship, calling it a simple exchange of services. “I started to feel like I had no freedom. Although technically I had no employment relationship with them and was just a freelancer, I had to work when they told me to and how they told me to,” he said at the time. Isaac lost both at first instance and on appeal to the Supreme Court.
However, in similar cases, the Spanish justice system has also ruled in favor of Delivery Drivers. For example, in June 2018, the Court of Valencia ruled that a Delivery Driver working for the Deliveroo Platform was not self-employed, but was simply an employee. So there was some hope for Delivery Drivers.
2019 – Glovo’s first conviction
The Barcelona Platform suffered its first legal defeat in August 2019. The Supreme Court of Justice of Asturias ruled that a Glovo Delivery Driver was not self-employed. “The classification of contracts does not depend on the name given to them by the contracting parties, but on the content and type of obligations assumed in the contract, which constitute its subject,” the judge pointed out. The court indicated that the contract did not provide for the possibility for the Delivery Driver to perform his work also outside the platform – and this would be a condition for the existence of self-employment.
Shortly before, in July 2019, the Spanish Social Insurance Institution won a major lawsuit against Deliveroo, which concerned the recognition of the employment relationship of 537 Delivery Drivers working for the company.
2020 – Supreme Court sets its position
The differences in court rulings have led the debate to the Supreme Court, in connection with an appeal filed by the first applicant against Glovo, Isaac Cuende. The Supreme Court ruled: “Glovo is not a mere intermediary in the contracting of services between companies and suppliers. It is a company providing delivery and courier services, establishing the essential conditions for the provision of that service.”
2021 – Government approves the Delivery Act
Although the Supreme Court’s position left little room for interpretation, the Government wanted to reinforce the position that Delivery Drivers were and are employees. A law was passed that recognized the employment nature of the relationship between Platforms and their permanent employees.
In November of that year, before the law came into force, Deliveroo announced that it was leaving the Spanish market and Glovo continued its “self-employment” practices.
2022 – Million-euro fines from the Labor Inspectorate, takeover by Delivery Hero
In parallel with the court rulings and legislative changes, the Labor Inspectorate began to impose fines on Glovo. The balance of unpaid contributions, penalties and default interest did not stop growing. At the end of 2022, the sum seemed huge: around €205 million. The current amount of penalties is not known, but is probably around €265 million.
In July of this year, Glovo’s shareholders’ meeting gave the final green light for its sale to the German company Delivery Hero. Delivery Hero became the owner of Glovo, and its value was valued at €2.3 billion. Delivery Hero now reports that it is increasing its provision for the effects of financial penalties, VAT claims and delayed social security contributions, which could total up to €770 million.
2023 – change in the Penal Code
A key change to the Penal Code came into force on January 12, 2023. It read: “Those who impose illegal conditions on their employees by employing them on terms unrelated to the employment contract or maintain them contrary to the requirement are subject to criminal sanctions.”
In June of the same year, the Ministry of Labor clearly expressed its intention to use this provision against the Glovo Platform.
2024 – Criminal investigation
A report was published in 2023 documenting hundreds of cases of self-employed Suppliers who, according to the ministry, should have been paid based on an employment contract. In early January 2024, the complaint was sent to the Barcelona Public Prosecutor’s Office, which began an investigation in February. A letter dated June 13 was sent to the Barcelona Court, which is opening the case. In the meantime, the European Union is finally approving the Platform Work Directive.