3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
While the capitalist market is based on self-interest and driven by material gain, the social
Commons is motivated by collaborative interests and driven by a deep desire to connect
with others and share. If the former promotes property rights, caveat emptor, and the
search for autonomy, the latter advances open-source innovation, transparency, and the
search for community.
What makes the Commons more relevant today than at any other time in its long history is
that we are now erecting a high-tech global technology platform whose defining
characteristics potentially optimize the very values and operational principles that animate
this age-old institution. The IoT is the technological “soul mate” of an emerging Sharing
Economy. The new infrastructure is configured to be distributed in nature in order to
facilitate collaboration and the search for synergies, making it an ideal technological
framework for advancing sharing across digitally operated global webs and networks.
The operating logic of the IoT is to optimize lateral peer production, universal access, and
inclusion, the same sensibilities that are critical to the nurturing and creation of social
capital in the civil society. As such, there is a need for both the traditional market capital
model and the expanding sharing model to operate together without either being
undermined.
With appropriate legislation, Luxembourg can support both consumers and businesses in
Sharing Economy activities (legal certainty is a prerequisite for sound economic
development). The European agenda for the collaborative economy presented by the
European Commission on June 2, 2016 provides helpful guidance. The regulations would
need to cover different aspects of the Sharing Economy. The distinction between
professional actors and private persons operating only occasionally should be established
by explicit criteria and thresholds. To ensure fair competition, professional sharing
economy activities should have to comply with the same legal obligations as market
economy businesses. This concerns, for instance, business permits, safety and security
standards or warranty deeds, as well as fiscal and social security obligations. In addition,
regulation should be designed, to create formal employment for Sharing Economy
workers, where applicable, to ensure a maximum of social security. It is important to
prevent the circumvention of labor laws and social standards.
414