Naturaleza jurídica de las plataformas digitales.

Abstract

In the recent years the emergence of digital platforms that order markets has transformed them and caused social and legal conflicts especially when they carry out their activity in regulated sectors, raising doubts about their legal nature and whether they must meet certain administrative requirements to operate. It is discussed whether they are information society services that are dedicated to intermediate between suppliers and consumers or if on the contrary it is a service provider and not a mere intermediary. Depending on the one or the other, the legal relationship with the user and the obligations derived from it will be diverse. Likewise, there is a debate about the legal category of the relationship of the platform with the service provider, since it can become a mere intermediation relationship, or a subcontracting of the service that the platform has promised the user or even a work contract. But although all these platforms have as a common point the disruption of the markets, the contractual clauses that connect them with the parties and their forms of action are very diverse, so the answers to the previous questions should be individualized for each platform and for a given time, taking into account that if these clauses or that form of action are altered also may change the different legal category. This paper aims to answer the previous questions by systematizing the different kinds of hypotheses and establish the determining criteria to obtain these answers.