The collaborative economy is a fast growing business trend including a varied range of activities and cutting across economic sectors, ranging from sharing houses and car journeys to domestic services. Sometimes also called “sharing economy”, “peer-to-peer economy” or “demand economy”, its contours are not precise. In its work, the Commission uses a broad concept, referring to all the business models, primarily based on transactions between peers, where activities are facilitated by collaborative platforms that create an open marketplace for the temporary use of products or services. Such transactions often do not involve a change of ownership, and can be carried out on a profit or non-profit basis.
