Regulating collaborative economy in the EU. Can the EU be collaborative-friendly without sacrificing consumer protection and fair competition?

The paper investigates on whether is it feasible to encourage the development of collaborative economy in the European Union while ensuring adequate consumer and competition protection through regulation at EU level. Thus, this paper will first assess if and how EU consumer acquis can effectively protect the user of collaborative economy services, notably when dealing with the supplier of goods/service provider. The second part of this paper will then address issues concerning competition between online platforms and traditional business models. There, the focus will be on determining if collaborative economy platforms operate on the very same market where traditional companies operate, thus competing in the provision of the underlying service, or not.