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Comment by Cthulhu_ | Hacker News Reader

If what you do as a software consultant is outside of the usual activities of the company you work for I suspect you should be fine.

Uber however is a taxi company and the brunt of their primary activities are done (atm) by contractors. Driving people around is their core business - even if they will probably give the defense that they're only a middle man with an app that links independent drivers up with people looking for a ride.

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I think they would argue they are an app company that connects drivers to people that need driving. Or food to people that need food. Etc. What about power sellers on ebay? Since they generate all their income from selling stuff on ebay should they be classified as employees of ebay?

Could uber work around this by having everyone form their own LLC to be an uber driver, and making that process painless for people? (or making it painful and not caring about the long term ramifications)

No, because eBay's business model is charging sellers for services. They don't mandate what you sell, how you deliver, or what payment company to use (now that they no longer own PayPal)

What about FedEx? Aren't most of their drivers contractors?

FedEx works on a franchise model. The franchisee may indeed need to classify its drivers as employees.

FedEx would also be affected.

This is one of the reasons UPS supported the bill. It creates parity between the two.

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