More than 7,000 Just Eat couriers had their day in a London tribunal this year, and the outcome is still unknown. The hearing ran from May 5 to June 2, 2026, and a judgment has not landed yet. If you deliver for a platform like this in the UK, or you’re watching to see how this kind of case tends to go, here is what is actually being decided.
What the couriers are claiming
The claimants, represented by the law firm Leigh Day, argue they should be classified as “limb (b)” workers rather than self-employed independent contractors. That distinction, unique to UK employment law, sits between full employee status and genuine self-employment. A limb (b) worker gets specific statutory protections that a self-employed contractor does not.
The tribunal will decide whether Just Eat’s actual working relationship with its couriers, not just the contract language, matches self-employment or worker status. That is the same fact-heavy test UK tribunals have applied in similar gig-economy cases for years, weighing things like how much control the platform exercises and how freely a courier can refuse or substitute work.
What changes if the ruling favors worker status
| Self-employed (current status) | Limb (b) worker (claimed status) | |
|---|---|---|
| National Minimum Wage | Not guaranteed | Guaranteed |
| Paid holiday | Not entitled | Entitled |
| Written terms of engagement | Not required | Required |
| Invoices for own work | Yes, courier invoices the platform | Typically no, paid through payroll-style processing |
A ruling in the couriers’ favor would not retroactively rewrite every past delivery. It would set the going-forward standard for how Just Eat, and potentially other platforms whose contracts look similar, has to treat this category of worker in the UK.
Why this doesn’t require you to do anything yet
A judgment is expected later in 2026, but nothing has actually changed for any courier’s status while the case sits with the tribunal. If you deliver for Just Eat or a similar platform under a self-employed contract today, that remains your status until a ruling says otherwise, and even then any change would apply going forward rather than to work already completed.
This is also the fourth major UK gig-platform case in recent years, following outcomes for Uber, Addison Lee, and Bolt drivers that went different ways depending on each platform’s specific contract terms. There is no single answer that applies across every platform. Each case turns on the actual substitution rights, control, and terms that specific company uses.
Keep your own records clean regardless of the outcome
Whatever the tribunal decides, self-employed couriers and freelancers working platform to platform still benefit from tracking their own income the way any contractor should: dated, itemized, and independent of whatever a platform’s app shows. A BillyPaid invoice for any work you do outside a platform’s own payment system keeps that record straight, worker-status ruling or not.
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