I. Introduction
In a significant development for India's digital platform
economy, the Karnataka government has brought into force the
Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare)
Act, 2025 (Act) and, more recently, the Karnataka Platform-Based
Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Rules, 2025 (Rules).
Together, they create one of the country's most detailed
state-level frameworks for the regulation of work delivered through
digital platforms.
The Act, notified on 12 September 2025 with effect from 30 May
2025, is designed to provide social security and welfare benefits
to platform-based gig workers (Gig Workers), to regulate the terms
on which 'aggregators' and 'platforms' engage them,
and to impose minimum standards around transparency, safety,
grievance redressal, and automated workforce management. It does
this through a sector-wide welfare fee on aggregators and a
dedicated governance and dispute-resolution architecture. At