Formerly an employment relationship, and thereby the scope of application of labour law, simply was defined by the criterion of ‘‘personal subordination’’. In view of the complexity of today’s working life in which autonomy and creativity play an ever increasing role the category of employment relationship had to be redefined. In Germany this has been done by the federal labour court which describes a whole set of elements indicating the existence of an employment relationship. However, since all these elements are mere indicators and have to be evaluated as a whole it has become very uncertain whether there is an employment relationship or self-employment. The assessment in actual cases has become extremely difficult