Research On The Tort Liability Of Ride-hailing Platform

As the most representative new form of sharing economy,the development of ride-hailing platform provides convenience for people to travel,but also raises many legal issues.The infringement cases that have arisen continuously have seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of passengers,and at present domestic research on ride-hailing platforms focuses more on the areas of regulation or employment relations,therefore,it is urgent to discuss the platform from the perspective of tort liability,so as to make clear the victim's path of protecting rights and regulate the development of the market.The main body of liability is not clear and the type of tort is complex in the case of violation of car-hailing,which leads to the inconsistency of judgment standards in the court dealing with the relevant cases.In addition,the current legal system does not have clear and specific norms for the liability determination of the platform,and the platform itself has problems in areas such as the supervision of drivers,vehicle access,and the customer service handling system when infringement cases occur,it is also the dilemma that the ride-hailing platform faces when assuming the tort liability.Considering that the diversity of the internal subjects is the main reason that leads to the uncertainty of the responsible subjects in the tort cases,it is the basis for the platform to undertake the tort liability to clarify the legal relationship among the subjects.Among them,the relationship between the platform and the passengers is a passenger contract,which is in line with the development of domestic ride-hailing market,but also closer to the essence of ride-hailing.The relationship between the platform and the driver is defined as a choice space,except for the agreement between the two parties,in the case of no clear agreement,it should be divided into labor relations or service relations according to the different comprehensive consideration of the service mode.And the legal relationship between platform and platform,especially the relationship between the new aggregation travel platform represented by "virtue" and "Meituan" and the third-party transportation platform they access,conforms to the legal characteristics of the intermediary relationship.According to the classification of tort liability,the tort liability of ride-hailing platform can be discussed as individual liability and joint liability.Under the separate liability division,including the platform's own liability,namely the single act of harm,such as the infringement of passenger's personal information,the right to know,and the infringement of the duty of direct liability caused by the type of infringement;It also includes situations in which the platform assumes vicarious liability in the event of a violation when the platform's driver performs a work task or acts in the course of performing his or her duties,subject to labour relations or service relations.Under the division of common liability,it includes the way that the platform and other subjects,such as drivers,bear supplementary liability or joint and several liability.In particular,the supplementary liability of the ride-hailing platform is mainly reflected in the provisions of Article 37,paragraph 2,of the Tort Liability Law.The course of the ride-hailing platform performs the obligation of safety and security as an organizer,when the third party's behavior and the platform's failure to fulfill the obligation of safety and security constitute infringement,the platform shall bear the supplementary liability in the scope of fault.Here the third party covers in the mode of aggregated travel,the platform's internal operating party that is the third party platform based on fault led to infringement,then aggregated travel platform should also bear additional liability.The basis for joint and several liability of the platform is derived from joint torts and special provisions of the law.If the occurrence of infringement cases is the platform driver's intentional or gross negligence,the driver can not be exempted from personal responsibility,should bear joint and several liability together with the platform.In addition,according to the liability of the Internet service provider in the tort liability of the Civil Code(draft),the platform clearly knows or should have known that the wrongdoer has caused damage to the users of the platform and has not taken measures,it should also bear joint and several liability for the loss of the infringed together with the injuring party.Finally,based on the multi-types of ride-hailing service modes and infringement cases existing in practice,it is more complicated for passengers to distinguish the liability of platforms under different modes and legal relationships,in addition,the identification of platform supplementary liability and joint and several liability is based on the nature of the security obligor and the network service provider to assign the platform's liability.Therefore,it is suggested that the application of joint and several liability should be considered under the premise of majority tort.The legal characteristics and system value of most of the infringement cases occurred in the operation of NLC accord with the design idea of this liability form.Therefore,it is possible to put forward the idea of establishing non-real joint and several liability for the liability of the platform,in order to ensure the safety and interests of all the subjects,especially the passengers,it is helpful to the construction of the liability system of the infringement of the car-hailing rights.