Just Eat Takeaway to end Paris delivery service, around 100 jobs affected

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Just Eat Takeaway will close its in-house delivery service in Paris, Europe's largest meals delivery company said on Thursday, a move which could impact around 100 jobs.

Just Eat has championed employing its own couriers in Europe rather than using "self-employed" couriers as is common in the gig economy and favoured by competitors such as Uber and Deliveroo, which are both bigger in France.

Just Eat said it was at a competitive disadvantage in France as a result, and abandoned its in-house delivery operations in most of France in 2022 in favour of a third-party courier service, Stuart, which uses self-employed couriers.

In Paris the company will now move to a similar model, a Just Eat Takeaway France spokesperson said in a statement.

CEO Jitse Groen, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, criticised the European Union's failure to approve the Platform Work Directive, a law which would create a "presumption of employment" for gig workers.

"I think it's a shame that European governments, especially the ones that have very stringent strong (labour) beliefs, such as France, are opposing this legislation," he said.

Earlier this week, Just Eat Takeaway said it expected to report 2023 core earnings ahead of its forecast, after it broke even on free cash flow in the second half of 2023.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling, Benoit Tessier and Benoit Van Overstraeten;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Jane Merriman)