When Compliance Workarounds Backfire
Four signals reveal when a regulatory workaround can hold — and when it’s simply delaying a costly redesign.
Laura Reijnders and Bilgehan UzuncaOctober 07, 2026Reading Time: 18 min
Summary:
Companies facing new regulations often reach for minimal compliance — narrow fixes that preserve the business model. But in algorithmic ...
In 2021, Barcelona-based delivery platform Glovo was faced with a law that threatened its business model. Spain had passed the Rider Law, which introduced a presumption of employment when a digital platform organizes, directs, or controls couriers’ work, including through algorithmic management. Glovo came up with what seemed like a clever fix to avoid having to classify its couriers as employees: emphasizing courier autonomy by redesigning its app so they could log in freely, reject orders without explicit penalties, and choose a daily rate multiplier.
Three years later, however, it was clear that...
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