As online platforms reshape Europe’s labour markets, data-driven gig work is growing rapidly. But this transformation raises concerns: workers often face low pay, isolation, and weak protections, while policymakers struggle to regulate platform labour with outdated tools. Vili Lehdonvirta’s work has helped the European Commission better understand how digital platforms are reshaping these markets.
Vili Lehdonvirta’s research highlighted how algorithmic management shapes working conditions, and how the structure of platform markets weakens worker power.
Former Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research
Vili Lehdonvirta is an expert on the politics and economics of digital platforms. His current research focuses on the geopolitics and geoeconomics of digital infrastructures.
The evidence from this research informed the EU’s Platform-to-Business (P2B) Regulation (2019), which requires platforms to explain how algorithms rank workers and disclose the data they withhold.
Lehdonvirta also contributed to shaping the EU’s Digital Services and Tax Packages (2020). His research, conducted with Daisy Ogembo, explored how countries could collect tax and social contributions from platform workers by directly accessing income data from platforms – a model that inspired the “Digital Single Window” concept now under development.
To support long-term regulation, Lehdonvirta co-developed the Online Labour Index (OLI), a tool for tracking platform work globally. As chair of an EU expert subgroup, he helped integrate this tool into recommendations for monitoring the platform economy, ensuring future policy is grounded in accurate data.
He also helped draft key recommendations as part of the EU High-Level Expert Group on the Digital Transformation of Labour. These include extending collective bargaining rights to platform workers, building technology-neutral social protections, and creating integrated reporting systems for taxes and benefits. These proposals continue to influence evolving EU policy.
This work was supported by the European Research Council project “Online Labour: The Construction of Labour Markets, Institutions and Movements on the Internet” (2015–2021).
Former Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research
Vili Lehdonvirta is an expert on the politics and economics of digital platforms. His current research focuses on the geopolitics and geoeconomics of digital infrastructures.
Former Researcher
Dr Wood is a sociologist of work and employment, focusing on the changing nature of employment relations and labour markets. As part of the iLabour project, he is currently researching worker voice, organisation and action in the online gig economy.
Faculty of Law, University of Oxford
Former Researcher
Otto Kässi is a labour economist with a background in econometrics. His research concentrates on empirical study of online labour markets, as part of the iLabour project with Vili Lehdonvirta.
Departmental Research Lecturer
Fabian is a Departmental Research Lecturer in AI & Work at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Former Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Gretta Corporaal is a Sociologist of Work and Organizations, previously based at the Oxford Internet Institute, specializing in online labor platforms and the future of work and organizations in the digital economy.
