Sharing Economy and

Regulation
The shared economy has become popular through
companies like Airbnb and Uber, which have registered
rapid growth in the last five years. Some projections
estimate that companies in the industry are expected to
generate revenues of about $ 335 billion globally by 2025,
and the scope for further geographic expansion remains
considerable. But like any rapid industry growth,
governments, regulators and industry have inherent
interests, and this has generated ever-increasing difficulties.
Although the best-known shared-economy applications are
primarily in the transportation and hosting industries, there
are companies in a number of other areas that have been
able to identify market inefficiencies. Examples of this are
We Are Pop Up, for office sharing; EatWith, Meal Sharing,
Traveling Spoon, for meal sharing. There are also clothing-
sharing appsYerdleand Knowledgelike udemy or
Skillshare.
In all cases, the commonalities are disintermediation,
sharing overcapacity, increased productivity and business
challenges for traditional operators such as taxi companies,
hotels, restaurants and utilities. Airbnb, for example, is
active in more than 190 countries and valued at more than $
20 billion dollars. Uber, launched six years ago, operates in
more than 300 cities and in more than 60 countries, has
more than one million drivers worldwide and is valued at
over $ 50 billion dollars.
If on the one hand we have this promising scenario, on the
other, not so much. Courts in Belgium, France, Germany,
Italy and the Netherlands have declared services derived
from the shared economy using non-professional drivers,
such as the UberPOP service, as illegal. The service was also
effectively banned in New York areas in the summer of 2015.
A California court ruled that a driver of a joint-stock
company is an employee, not an autonomous, and a judge
subsequently recommended that Uber be fined U $ 7.3
million and suspended from operating in the state. The
South Korean government has banned Uber to encourage
the development of local applications. And Delhi authorities
have imposed a temporary ban on Uber after a rape case by
an application driver in the Indian capital.
In this context, regulators and governments are beginning to
question the long-term impact of the shared-economy
business model vis--vis traditional operators and
communities. The mayor of Paris, for example, set up a team
of 20 agents to repress hosts who were sharing rooms
deemed illegal by applications such as AirBnB. As a result,
20 owners of 56 apartments were fined.
The issue of regulation for these applications is the central
point for defining the future of the society we want. For
example, the European Union considers it too early to
decide whether the service provided by Uber is a digital
service or a transport service. In this case, we must observe
the behavior of other disruptive industries, as in the case of
telecommunications and energy producers, to make the
most appropriate policy decision and to identify the areas
that should be regulated.
Clarifying the roles and responsibilities for identifying and
punishing abuses, coexisting with traditional operators,
paying taxes, preventing data privacy abuse are some of the
things that should be observed with parsimony.
The shared economy is growing rapidly and creating new
opportunities around the world. Like all major disruptions,
it is putting pressure on existing business models and
regulatory milestones. Participants have the opportunity to
play a role in developing long-term solutions that encourage
innovation and at the same time protect consumers and
society from possible unimagined harm in a simple, short-
term analysis.

Note: This text was based on article Alberto

Marchi McKinseys publication.
This text was for
blog http://economiadeservicos.com/2016/11/16/a-
economia-compartilhada-e-a-regulacao/