Neoliberalism and the legality of peer platform markets

•Some “sharing economy” proponents have been dismissive of legal issues surrounding the new platforms.•These responses are largely derived from neoliberal ideas about markets, the state, and law.•These ideas are incoherent, and their application to peer platform markets is inappropriate.•Dismissive responses to the legal issues cannot therefore be easily justified.

Online platforms for rentals and services raise difficult legal issues. Nevertheless, some commentators have been quick to dismiss these issues or to argue that the laws themselves are the problem. This article traces the intellectual sources of these responses. It argues that these sources can generally be identified with neoliberalism, including its description of markets as both spontaneous and institutionally constructed as well as a distinction between laws that provide infrastructure for markets and laws that interfere with markets. Cyberlibertarianism and “sharing economy” discourse also play a role. However, there are flaws in these theoretical premises and in their application in this context. While there exist sound bases for critiques of certain regulatory regimes, the assumption that the platforms are, on the whole, more freedom-enhancing and more efficient than state regulation cannot be sustained. Nor can it be assumed that the benefits of these markets will be widely distributed.