‘ A Legal Whack‐a‐Mole’ . Escaping the Rider Law in Spain: Platform Strategies and the Hollowing of Enforcement Under Platform Capitalism

ABSTRACT

This article examines the implementation of Spain's Rider Law, one of the most ambitious regulatory interventions in platform‐mediated work, and analyses why its effects on employment relations have remained limited. Drawing on qualitative interviews with trade union and grassroots rider organisations, the study shows that enforcement has not transformed the labour process but has instead generated a new regulatory equilibrium. Platform firms responded to the law through organisational restructuring, algorithmic opacity, and performative compliance, preserving core features of algorithmic management while formally adapting to legal requirements. The findings conceptualise enforcement as a contested and relational process shaped by the interaction of digital technologies, corporate strategies, weak workplace organisation, and limited state capacity. By foregrounding the role of algorithmic management as both a labour control and regulatory technology, the article contributes to debates on platform work, labour regulation, and the governance of employment under digital capitalism.