A Spanish court yesterday ruled in a landmark case that a rider for food courier firm Deliveroo should have been treated as an employee and not as self-employed.

The decision is the first ruling over the rights of Deliveroo’s riders in Spain.

The case involved rider Victor Sanchez, who was fired for ‘lack of availability’. The Valencia court said Deliveroo was not allowed to dismiss Sanchez in the way it did and that he should have been treated as an employee and not a self-employed contractor. The court added that the dismissal was inappropriate.

The Valencia court stated that "there exists an employment relationship between the two parties" in the case of Sanchez.

Deliveroo has been ordered to pay Sánchez compensation for unfair dismissal, but can appeal the verdict.

A spokesperson for Deliveroo said: "Deliveroo riders are self-employed as this gives riders the freedom to choose when and where to work, which is what they tell us they want. Deliveroo will continue to offer riders flexible work, while increasing their security with free, market-leading insurance.

“This case concerns one rider who was on an old contract, which no longer reflects the way riders work with Deliveroo. Where current contracts have been looked at by courts across Europe, legal opinion has judged them to offer genuine self-employment,” the Deliveroo spokesperson said. “The company will consider the judgement before deciding on next steps.”

Deliveroo is already involved in legal action over employment rights in other European countries. Last year, a number of Deliveroo riders in the UK took legal action against the food courier over their employment status. In the Netherlands, a Deliveroo courier launched a lawsuit against the company’s decision to replace all of its employed couriers in the Netherlands with freelancers (known as zzp’ers in the Netherlands).