The Belgian Platform Rule That Judges What You Could Do, Not What You Did

Your contractor arrangements may look fine in practice. But what does your platform actually have the power to do?

Let's say your company runs a freelancer marketplace that operates in Belgium.

You have independent contractors using your platform, and as far as you're concerned, they have plenty of freedom.

They choose which projects to accept. You don't interfere much with how they work. And although your terms allow you to restrict certain activities or suspend accounts, you've rarely had to use those powers.

So when someone asks whether your contractors are genuinely self-employed, you might feel fairly confident.

After all, you're not controlling their work every day.

But here's where we'd want you to look a little closer.

What if Belgian employment rules consider the control your platform could exercise, even when you haven't exercised it?

That's an important distinction, and one that could change how you assess your contractor arrangements.

Why Belgium looks beyond what your platform actually does

When companies review contractor classification, they often start with how people work in practice.

That makes sense. You want to understand whether contractors choose their assignments, manage their own schedules and operate independently.

But Belgium has a specific employment-status presumption for digital platform work, in force since January 2023.

And one particularly important feature is how its criteria are framed.

They consider powers the platform is able to exercise, not only actions it has already taken.

Think about your platform's terms of service.

Perhaps you reserve the right to restrict contractors from approaching clients directly. Maybe your system allows you to monitor performance or limit how assignments are accepted.

You might not use those features regularly.

But that doesn't necessarily mean they're irrelevant when someone reviews your classification model.

So the question isn't only, “How do our contractors work?” It's also, “What control have we given ourselves the right or ability to exercise?”

That's where we'd encourage platform operators to begin.

Your standard platform terms may be creating questions you haven't considered

Here's something worth checking.

Under Belgium's platform-work presumption, there are eight statutory criteria. The presumption can be triggered when at least three are met, or when two of the final five are met.

That means you shouldn't assume classification risk only arises when your platform controls nearly every part of someone's work.

Imagine reviewing your marketplace and discovering that your terms allow you to restrict contractors from building direct client relationships.

Then you notice that your platform can electronically supervise aspects of their work.

You may have commercial reasons for both features.

But under the Belgian criteria, they could be relevant to the employment-status assessment.

And this is why we'd suggest looking at more than the contractor agreement.

Your community guidelines, platform settings, performance dashboards and account-management rules may also tell an important part of the story.

Of course, identifying a criterion doesn't automatically settle someone's employment status. The Belgian presumption is rebuttable, and the applicable legal conditions still need to be assessed.

But wouldn't you rather understand which criteria your platform may meet before you're asked to defend the arrangement?

December brings another reason to review your systems

There's another development worth keeping in mind.

EU Member States have until 2 December 2026 to transpose the Platform Work Directive.

Belgium already has its own platform-work employment presumption, but the Directive also addresses algorithmic management and transparency.

For example, digital labour platforms may need to provide information about automated systems used to monitor workers or support decisions affecting their working conditions.

Now consider what that means for your business.

You may need to explain what your platform's systems are designed to do, what information they use and how they influence decisions about workers.

At the same time, some of those capabilities may be relevant when assessing your existing contractor classification arrangements under Belgian law.

That's why we'd suggest reviewing the powers built into your platform before treating algorithmic transparency and worker classification as two completely separate projects.

The obligations and implementation details still need to be checked against the applicable Belgian rules. But the operational connection is worth understanding now.

This is where Dhi ADT comes in

If your company operates a freelancer marketplace or digital staffing platform in Belgium, we'd start by understanding your actual business model.

How do contractors receive assignments? What restrictions appear in your terms? What can your platform monitor or control, even if those features aren't used regularly?

We'd help you bring together the information needed for a Belgian classification review, identify which statutory criteria deserve closer examination and assess the employment and payroll questions that may follow.

And if the review raises concerns, we'd help you understand the available workforce arrangements and where local legal assessment is needed.

We're not suggesting that every platform should remove its controls or employ every contractor.

The right decision depends on the model you're operating and the legal requirements that apply.

What we want to help you avoid is discovering that your platform has classification risks you never assessed because you were only looking at how it operates day to day.

Before December, check what your platform is allowed to do

If there's one thing we'd encourage you to do after reading this, it's to open your platform's terms of service and compare them with the capabilities built into your systems.

Don't just ask whether you've ever suspended a contractor, restricted an assignment or monitored performance.

Ask whether your platform has the power to do those things.

Then consider how those powers fit within Belgium's platform-work criteria.

You may find that your existing model is defensible. Or you may discover that some clauses and capabilities deserve a closer review.

Either way, you'll have a clearer picture of the arrangement you're operating.

If you're unsure where your platform stands, book a 30-minute workforce compliance review with Dhi ADT.

We'll discuss your operating model, the areas worth examining and the next steps for assessing your Belgian workforce arrangements.

Because in Belgium, the question may not be whether you've used a particular power over your contractors. It may be whether your platform has that power in the first place.

Get in touch with us:

Netherlands (HQ) : +31 97010207974

UK (HQ) : +44 7401131349

Belgium : +32 460254634

Follow us on:

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/dhi-adt/