Tech companies for years hotly resisted the Labor Department’s effort to shape a new rule governing the classification of independent contractors. Now that it’s here, they’re breathing a sigh of relief.

“When they first came out with these proposed rules a year ago, there was some speculation that the Labor Department would use it to do kind of a broad-scale attack on gig work platforms, app-based work platforms,” said Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the Uber and Lyft-backed Chamber of Progress. “And I don’t see that as being very likely.”

That’s not the feeling in some other industries where independent contractors are common.

“I can think of nothing more un-American than for the government to extinguish the freedom of individuals to choose work arrangements that suit their needs and fulfill their ambitions,” Trucking Association CEO Chris Spear said, calling the rule a “tangled mess.”

But as app-based companies have been the face of the classification policy fight, the reaction from the industry and its allies to the rule’s rollout on Tuesday suggests its implementation, slated for March, will have little immediate impact on those business models — which progressives and unions have said deprive workers of employee rights, like a minimum wage and time-and-a-half overtime assurances.

...