Category: News

The last weeks, the climate agreement is a much discussed topic. However, for a lot of people it is unclear what the climate agreement exactly is what this agreement entails. It all started with the Paris Climate Agreement. This is an agreement between nearly all countries in the world to […]

Entrepreneurs that employ employees, often share confidential information with these employees. This may concern technical information, such as a recipe or algorithm, or non-technical information, such as customer bases, marketing strategies or business plans. However, what will happen to this information when your employee starts working at the company of […]

Entrepreneurs who sell products or provide services often use general terms and conditions to regulate the relationship with the recipient of the product or service. When the recipient is a consumer, he enjoys consumer protection. Consumer protection is created to protect the ‘weak’ consumer against the ‘strong’ entrepreneur. In order […]

Research shows that many people sign a contract without actually understanding its contents. In most cases this concerns rent or purchase contracts, employment contracts and termination contracts. The reason for not understanding contracts can often be found in the use of language; contracts often contain many legal terms and official […]

Based on article 29a of the Sickness Benefits Act the female insured who is not able to perform work is entitled to receive a payment if the cause of the disability to work is related to pregnancy or giving birth. In the past, a connection between psychological complaints, causing the […]

For the first time in the Netherlands someone has received a passport without a gender designation. Ms. Zeegers does not feel like a man and does not feel like a woman. Earlier this year, the court of Limburg decided that gender is not a matter of sexual characteristics but of […]

The Dutch government wants to arrange that partners who are getting a divorce automatically get the right to receive half of each other’s pension. Dutch minister Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs and Employment wants to discuss a proposal in the Second Chamber in mid 2019. In the coming period the […]

For many people it will a nightmare: the holiday that you have worked so hard for the entire year is cancelled due to bankruptcy of the travel provider. Fortunately, the chance of this happening to you has been reduced by the implementation of new legislation. On July 1, 2018, new […]

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has already been in force for several months. However, there is still uncertainty about the meaning of certain terms in the GDPR. For example, it is not clear to everyone what the difference is between a controller and a processor, while these are core […]

Unfair commercial practices through telephone sales are reported more often. This is the conclusion of the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets, the independent supervisor that stands up for consumers and businesses. People are approached more and more by telephone with so-called offers for discount campaigns, holidays and contests. Very […]

According to the Dutch Trust Office Supervision Act, the following service is regarded as a trust service: the provision of domicile for a legal entity or company in combination with the provision of additional services. These additional services can, among other things, consist of providing legal advice, taking care of […]

Intellectual property law is constantly developing and has tremendously grown recently. This can be seen, amongst others, in copyright law. Nowadays, almost everyone is on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or has his own website. People therefore create much more content than they used to do, which is often published publicly. […]

‘Deliveroo bicycle courier Sytse Ferwanda (20) is an independent entrepreneur and not an employee’ was the judgement of the court in Amsterdam. The contract that was concluded between a deliverer and Deliveroo does not count as an employment contract – and thus is the deliverer not an employee at the […]

The European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) has suspended Poland as member. The ENCJ states to have doubts about the independence of the Polish judicial authority based on the recent reforms. The Polish governing party Law and Justice (PiS) has introduced some radical reforms in the past few […]

Posting negative and false Google reviews costs a dissatisfied customer dearly. The customer posted negative reviews concerning the nursery and its Board of Directors under different aliases and anonymously. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal stated that the customer did not contradict that she has not acted in conformity with the […]

Then it is wise to request proper advice about the duties in relation to the works council of your company. By doing so, you can avoid a potential hindrance to the selling process. In a recent ruling of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, the Enterprise Division ruled that the selling […]

On July 12, 2017, the Dutch Senate unanimously accorded the proposal of Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Plasterk to, in the near future, better protect the privacy of email and other privacy sensitive telecommunication. Article 13 paragraph 2 of the Dutch Constitution states that secrecy of telephone calls […]

As of July 1, 2017, it is forbidden in the Netherlands to advertise for electronic cigarettes without nicotine and for herb mixes for water pipes. The new rules apply to everybody. In this way, the Dutch Government continues its policy to protect children under 18. As of July 1, 2017, […]

On June 27, 2017, international companies had IT malfunctioning due to a ransomware attack. In the Netherlands, APM (the largest Rotterdam container transfer company), TNT and pharmaceuticals manufacturer MSD reported failure of their IT system due to the virus called “Petya”. The computer virus began in Ukraine where it affected […]

According to the decision of the European Commission, Google must pay a penalty of EUR 2,42 billion for breaking antitrust law. The European Commission states that Google advantaged its own Google Shopping products in the results of the Google search engine to the detriment of other providers of goods. Links […]

European Commission wants intermediaries to inform them about constructions for tax avoidance they create for their clients. Countries often lose tax revenue due to mostly transnational fiscal constructions that tax advisors, accountants, banks and lawyers (intermediaries) create for their clients. To increase transparency and enable cashing of those taxes by […]

Everyone needs to keep the Netherlands digitally safe says Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland 2017. It is very hard to imagine our life without Internet. It makes our life easy, but on the other hand, carries a lot of risks. The technologies are developing rapidly and the cybercrime-rate is rising. Dijkhoff (Deputy State […]

According to the European Innovation Scoreboard of the European Commission, the Netherlands receives 27 indicators for innovation potential. The Netherlands is now in 4th place (2016 – 5th place), and is named as Innovation Leader in 2017, together with Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom. According to the Dutch Minister […]

The history of tax begins in Roman times. People living in the territory of the Roman Empire had to pay taxes. The first tax rules in the Netherlands appear in 1805. The basic principle of taxation was born: income. Income tax was formalized in 1904. VAT, income tax, payroll tax, […]

Many Dutchmen probably dream about it: getting married at a beautiful location abroad, maybe even at your beloved, annual holiday destination in Greece or Spain. However, when you – as a Dutch person – wish to get married abroad, you must meet a lot of formalities and requirements and think […]

On July 1, 2017, in the Netherlands the labour law changes. And with that the conditions for health, safety and prevention. Working conditions form an important factor in the employment relationship. Employers and employees can therefore benefit from clear agreements. At this moment there is a huge diversity of contracts […]

In the Netherlands the minimum wage depends on the age of the employee. The legal rules on the minimum wage can differ annually. For example, from July 1, 2017  the minimum wage now amounts to € 1.565,40 per month for employees of 22 and over. 2017-05-30

Legal procedures are intended to find a solution to a problem, but often achieve the complete opposite. According to a research from Dutch research institute HiiL, legal problems are being resolved less and less, as the traditional process model (the so-called tournament model) instead causes a division between parties. As […]

Nowadays, the hashtag is not only popular on Twitter and Instagram: the hashtag is increasingly used to establish a trademark. In 2016, the number of trademarks with a hashtag in front of it increased by 64% worldwide. A good example of this is T-mobile’s trademark ‘#getthanked’. Still, claiming a hashtag […]

Nowadays, it is already a lot less common to come home to an (unintentionally) high telephone bill of a few hundred euros after that annual, well deserved trip within Europe. The costs of using a mobile phone abroad have decreased by more than 90% compared to the past 5 to […]

If it were up to the Dutch Minister Asscher of Social Affairs and Welfare, anyone who earns the legal minimum wage will receive the same fixed amount per hour in the future. Currently, the Dutch minimum hourly wage may still depend on the number of hours worked and the sector […]

Have you ever booked your holiday online? Then chances are high that you have encountered offers which come across much more attractive than they ultimately prove to be, with a lot of frustration as a result. A screening of the European Commission and the EU consumer protection authorities has even […]

In a new Dutch bill which has been placed on the internet for consultation today, the Dutch minister Blok (Safety and Justice) has expressed the wish to end the anonymity of holders of bearer shares. It will soon be possible to identify these shareholders on the basis of their securities […]