Freelancers and the self-employed can make collective agreements about their pay rates to ensure that they have a minimum income, according to a concept position paper by the Dutch competition watchdog ACM.

Freelancers are currently banned from agreeing collective fees because this would lead to unfair competition and could lead to higher prices for consumers.

‘We want to ensure markets work well for people and companies,’ ACM chairman Martijn Snoep said. ‘Markets do not work well if freelancers are earning below subsistence levels because of their low hourly tariff.’

The government has said it wants to introduce a legal minimum fee of €16 an hour for freelancers from 2021 to boost self-employed earnings and stop social dumping.

The ACM said that it will not take action against freelancers who work together to realise this minimum fee in the run up to that legislation becoming law.