Regimul juridic al prestatorului de servicii român în contractele electronice internaţionale specifice economiei colaborative
The legal regime of the Romanian service provider in the international electronic contracts specific to the collaborative economy

Summary/Abstract: The evolution of technology has facilitated the development of the so-called collaborativeeconomy. Through collaborative online platforms, which „remove” the borders between states,various services such as short-term housing rental (Airbnb type), urban transport (Uber type),pet-sitting (PetBacker type), and others are provided. In Romania, the activities specific to thecollaborative economy are in full development, in the context of the absence of some regulationsspecific in the matter.The purpose of the paper is to determine the role of the service provider in electroniccontracts concluded through collaborative platforms and to which rules they must be subjected,taking as reference system the service provider with the habitual residence in Romania. It isanalysed only the situation of service providers – natural persons, which can be grouped into twocategories: a category of persons providing various services on an occasional basis, in leisuretime, in order to obtain additional incomes (the so-called prosumers), category which is the basisof the collaborative economy, and the second category, which includes the persons who provideservices on a regular basis, on a continuous basis, on their own and aiming at obtaining profit.The distinction between non-professional and professional service providers is difficult to achieve;there are no criteria in the legislation in the field of services for this purpose. The quality ofprofessional or non-professional must therefore be analysed on a case-by-case basis, using therules of the common law. The legal regime depends on the classification of the service providerinto one category or another.The contracts in the collaborative economy are concluded by means of online collaborativeplatforms. Those operating in Romania mostly have their headquarters abroad, which awardsinternational character to the contracts concluded. Using the regulations in force, there are analyzedthe modalities to determine the law applicable to contracts and the authority competent to solve the disputes, which may arise between the service provider and the platform or between the serviceprovider and their user.The study captures only a small part of the collaborative economy phenomenon and seeks toclarify some day-to-day situations, which can give rise to some complex legal problems.

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