3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
“commons-based reciprocity licenses” that would enable exchange value to remain more easily
within the sphere of the commons and the commoners.” 361
Renewable energy cooperatives are among the new sharing enterprises experiencing rapid
growth. For example, more than 300 energy cooperatives were created in the Netherlands
alone between 2005 and 2013. 362
Regulatory, Legal and Policy Issues
As PWC succinctly notes in their 2015 report, The Sharing Economy, “There is no question that
the regulatory, legal and tax framework needs to be fit for a new age. The right balance of
solutions needs to be built from the bottom-up, where local authorities can quickly trial and
experiment with new models. Not surprisingly, this is more easily done when both sides work
together. For instance, Airbnb worked with Amsterdam’s local council to pass an “Airbnbfriendly
law” in February of 2014 which permits residents to rent out their homes for up to 60
days a year, provided that the owner pays the relevant taxes.” 363
As a number of scholars and analysts have noted, peer-to-peer businesses are changing market
dynamics. This raises the need for regulatory changes, as well as enforcement and policy
changes regarding competition law. Peer-to-peer businesses simultaneously create new
market assets, increase the welfare of citizen consumers, spawn new job creation, add value to
assets, and contribute to economic productivity. But in doing so, they also present regulatory
and competitive enforcement challenges. How regulators handle these challenges is tricky, and
a number of observers suggest the pursuit of outcome-focused solutions sensitive to the
diverse business models. 364
361 Conaty, Pat and David Bollier (2014) Toward an Open Co-Operativism, A New Social Economy Based on Open
Platforms, Co-operative Models and the Commons, A Report on a Commons Strategies Group Workshop Berlin,
Germany, August 27-28, 2014.
362 De Moor, Tine (2013) Homo Cooperans, Institutions for collective action and the compassionate society,
Universiteit Utrecht, August 30, 2013.
363 See: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/technology/publications/assets/pwc-consumer-intelligence-series-thesharing-economy.pdf
364 Fingleton, John and David Stallibrass (2015) Peer to peer businesses, regulation and competition, Mercato
Concorrenza Regole, December 3, 2015.
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