Cross-Border Regulation of Legal Persons Activities in the Economics Segment of Joint Consuming: Legal Aspects

The paper at hand aims to research the current situation of legal status of companies operating under the principles of sharing economy (exampled by Uber and Airbnb, hereinafter referred to as ‘Companies’). In order to achieve the relevant the following must be done: analysis of existing legislation in regard to legal status of Companies; analysis of case history related to activities of Companies – legal intercourses between drivers and passengers, landlords and renters; analysis of those same realms of Russian existing legislation for the forecast on further development of Companies in Russian markets. The following outcomes were gained from the research. Firstly, the nature of legal status of Companies has changed substantially since the time they had started their activities. Secondly, the very nature of activities executed by Companies has also changed under the pressure from states and municipalities from all over the world, competitors and lobbyists supported by businesses from traditional industries (taxies and hotels). Nowadays Companies are not remarkably different their traditional counterparts in some countries which are huge markets for them – Uber drivers somewhere are obliged to obtain the relevant licenses, Airbnb landlords are limited in their possibilities on the platform and are sometimes subjected to local hotel taxes, and Companies themselves resort to traditional tax evasion and tax shell strategies in transnational level. Thirdly, companies retained the closest to their original form in Russia thanks to optimal approach taken by Russian legislators in regard to new business activities.