An Assessment of the EU’s Draft Guidelines on the Application of EU Competition Law to Collective Agreements of the Solo Self-Employed

On December 9, 2021, the European Commission published its draft Guidelines on collective bargaining for solo self-employed persons. The Guidelines aim to remove existing competition law restrictions to collective bargaining for vulnerable solo self-employed people. This article provides an overview and initial assessment of the draft Guidelines. After demonstrating the reasons that led to the adoption of the new instrument (part 1), the article analyses its protective provisions (part 2) and as