Barcelona Court Rejects Just Eat’s €295 Million Unfair-Competition Claim Against Glovo

Barcelona’s Commercial Court No. 2 has dismissed Just Eat’s unfair-competition lawsuit seeking €295 million in damages from food-delivery rival Glovo. The ruling, issued on 10 July, concludes that Glovo’s contractual models for riders since 2019 comply with Spanish law and provide sufficient autonomy to couriers, undermining Just Eat’s allegation that the company gained an unlawful cost advantage by hiring so-called false self-employed workers. The judge found that the two platforms operate distinct business models—Just Eat derives about 80 % of its revenue from restaurant pick-up orders, whereas Glovo is primarily focused on home delivery—and rejected the premise that worker classification alone created unfair competition. The court also questioned Just Eat’s estimate that Glovo saved more than €645 million by using autonomous couriers, calling the calculation incoherent with data presented. The decision can be appealed to the Barcelona Provincial Court. It arrives amid continued regulatory debate over Spain’s 2021 “Rider Law,” which obliges delivery platforms to employ riders directly unless they meet strict criteria for self-employment. Glovo has faced previous sanctions over its labour model but recently said it has shifted thousands of couriers to employment contracts.