A Paris court on Tuesday fined the British meal delivery group Deliveroo after ruling it was guilty of "undeclared labour" for using freelance riders who should have been classified as employees, depriving the state of millions of euros in payroll taxes, reports Yahoo! News.
It was the latest move by European courts to recognise the rights of "gig economy" workers used by start-ups and other firms, which often claim they are simply go-betweens for clients and independent contractors.
The court ordered the maximum fine of 375,000 euros ($405,000) sought by prosecutors and also handed suspended one-year prison sentences and 30,000-euro fines to two former French executives at Deliveroo.
A third executive got a suspended four-month sentence and a 10,000-euro fine for complicity in the system, and Deliveroo was also ordered to pay 50,000 euros each in damages to five labour unions who joined the case as plaintiffs.
State prosecutor Celine Ducournau had sought in vain to question Deliveroo's American founder and CEO Will Shu over a "fraud" that gave "all the benefits to the employer... without any of the inconveniences."