The legal understanding of labour exploitation is a grey area. This paper first outlines some of the obstacles in international and regional law and jurisprudence, as to the understanding of exploitation in the context of human trafficking, slavery, servitude, and forced labour. Secondly, taking into account recent legal reforms in both Belgium and England and Wales, this paper outlines some of the key features that have emerged from the judicial handling of labour exploitation in criminal cases. Drawing on the findings from empirical analysis of criminal cases between 2010–2017 as part of doctoral research, this paper first of all outlines the similarities, differences, and challenges to ensuring a clear understanding of the meaning of labour exploitation in the context of human trafficking. The findings will provide insight into how to strengthen a harmonised and robust response to human trafficking. ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published