Understanding the legal status of online logistics platforms in Europe: a decision framework for service providers improving legal certainty in the platform context

The legal framework in logistics depends on a liability exposure that is attached to service providers (legal status). However, mandatory (which cannot be avoided with the parties’ agreement) and facultative (which can be replaced with the parties’ agreement) contract laws impose fundamentally different liability exposures on service providers. Moreover, depending on jurisdiction, the same service provider can acquire different liabilities. The reason for this is that national judges consider operational context differently. The rise of platforms in logistics (understood as internet logistics service providers that use various types of procurement mechanism to optimise flows of goods) has made the set of rules that can be applied even more problematic mainly because more legal frameworks should be considered. The uniqueness of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, the paper adds theoretical implications that justify further exploration in the topic of legal classification of logistics intermediaries. Particularly, the paper expands the discussions on the concept of a transport intermediary by investigating the legal status of online logistic platforms in the context of the provision of online services and management of transport data. Furthermore, the paper provides a practical support for contract creation in a digitalized context.