Self-employed people and platforms after 1 October 2026: what to check in the contract

From 1 October 2026 the platform-economy rules already apply. The question is no longer “will we rewrite the template in time”, but how to work from here: who is the party in a dispute, whether a platform block of the pair will trigger, and whether your direct contract with a self-employed person looks like employment. Below is a practical review for the customer and the contractor.

This is a guide, not legal advice. Subordinate acts and platform practice are still being refined — keep the offer and the contract version as of the date of the work.

You have an old civil-law contract and a new exchange offer — first record the differences, then run the text for signs of reclassification:

Check the contract Compare two versions

What actually changed after 1 October

For operators of digital platforms, limits on a self-employed person’s long “full engagement” with one customer through the platform are now on. The public benchmark: cooperation longer than six months in a row and a load above 160 hours a month for that customer — after that the platform must technically restrict the interaction (a cooling-off period, usually about two months).

A direct contract outside the platform is not automatically cut off by this block. But the criteria of 6 months + 160 hours have become a market indicator of risk: if you have the same pattern on paper and in fact, the Federal Tax Service and a court will look at signs of employment just as strictly as before.

Two tracks: the platform offer and your civil-law contract

1. You work through an exchange or an aggregator

Who is the party to payment, and who issues the NPD receipt
How the platform counts hours and the length of cooperation
What happens when the pair is blocked: access to orders, payouts, disputes
Whether you also have a parallel direct contract — and whether it contradicts the offer

More on where the offer meets a direct agreement: a self-employed person through a platform.

2. A direct contract with an NPD payer

The subject is a measurable result or volume of services, not “performance of duties”
No work schedule, job title, salary, or subordination to internal rules
Certificates and NPD receipts on actual acceptance
A check of self-employed status on the payment date

Risky wording is covered here: civil-law wording with a reclassification risk. Preparation “for the deadline” is in the article for 1 October; this piece is about the regime after the rules took effect.

What the customer should do this week

A list of NPD contractors: who is through a platform, who is direct, and how many months in a row
For platform work — check the offer and the cooling-off rules; leave a margin on the load
For direct contracts — strip out “employment” words and fix the result in certificates
Do not move one person from the platform onto a direct contract with the same schedule — that does not disguise the relationship

A 10-minute checklist

It is clear whether you work through a platform or under a direct civil-law contract
The current platform offer or contract version is saved
The text has no schedule, job title, salary, or “labour discipline”
The subject and the certificates are tied to a result
There is a procedure for checking NPD status and the receipt
It is clear who is responsible in a dispute over quality and deadlines

Short conclusion

After 1 October the market is guided by platform caps and the same reclassification criteria as before. A working approach: split the flows “platform / direct contract”, remove employment wording, and check the text before the next payment — not after a claim.

Check a contract with a self-employed person in DocumentCHEK

Upload the civil-law contract or the offer — get a review of one-sided terms and risk signs. If you need a new frame, assemble a draft from a brief.

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Self-employed people and platforms after 1 October 2026: what to check in the contract now