• Charlotte Klein

  Economics Editor

After years of struggling to have the largest legal altercation with the union and Stories About an illegal business in the platform, Deliveroo’s adventure in the Netherlands has come to an end. About 4,500 meal deliveries And 50 office workers will do something else from November 30th.

According to the British Delivery Service, not enough money is being made here. The company says it generates 1 percent of its sales from the Netherlands and wants to focus on countries where it plays a bigger role.

But experts tell NOS there’s more to it. Like an upcoming Supreme Court ruling and the fact that borrowing money is no longer free.

The legal troubles began in 2017, when Deliveroo was launched announce to work only with freelancers as delivery drivers, to the dismay of the FNV union. Since then, several judges in the Netherlands have considered the question: Are directors really self-employed, or do they work in a permanent job?

last year The Court of Appeal decided that riders You should already have a permanent job. In December and February (the case was divided into two parts), the Supreme Court, the highest court in the Netherlands, will consider the matter.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Deliveroo left the Netherlands three weeks ago,” says Martijn Arets, platform economist. “When a similar law was introduced in Spain, they left there too.”

To accommodate delivery drivers, Deliveroo has – in negotiations with Etihad – provided a compensation plan forged. It’s not severance pay, says FNV director Anja Dijkman, because Deliveroo categorically does not recognize delivery drivers as employees.

Delivery drivers have until November 8 to sign on, and according to Deliveroo, 90 percent of them have done so. The salient detail from that agreement: “Deliveroo and the passenger grant each other a final release and hereby waive any claims against each other.”

If Deliveroo loses in the High Court and is forced to retroactively hire its deliverers on a permanent basis, deliverers who sign up cannot claim any subsequent payments.

So why did the union agree to that? Dickmann: “It’s a reasonable fee, especially for Muslims of foreign origin, of whom there are many. They won’t easily go through legal proceedings here and can choose for themselves.”

Those weren’t the only problems, says Aretz: “The era of free money is over. You can borrow and invest for very little money, but interest rates are going up now, and that makes investors even more important.”

Eva de Mol of CapitalT, an investment firm that primarily invests money in startups, is aware of this trend. She describes Deliveroo’s problem as twofold: people spend less money anyway and quickly cut back on food. Plus, in her eyes, these types of companies have become worth more on paper than they are in reality.

De Mol: “In recent years, entire industries have been driven off the ground by this cheap money. For example, not a penny is made in express delivery, but billions have been invested in it. But what do you actually earn from someone who sells One pack of diapers “late delivery” in this regard is now survival of the fittestinstead of stay for the rich, She thinks. “You’re seeing investment in ‘nice’ companies fade away, and focus shifting to what we need.”

The latter trend is visible among flash drives. One after another, they appeared on the market at lightning speed last year, but the decline is almost as fast. Zapp has already left the Netherlands and the Gorillas have withdrawn from several cities.

Customers also withdraw. Figures from market researcher GfK show that the number of users has fallen by a third since the spring. About half of the remaining customers expect to order less.

Getir is now busy taking on his rival Gorillas. This is not the case with meal delivery companies in the Netherlands, although Thuisbezorgd and UberEats will prey on Deliveroo delivery drivers.