EV charging points in the Netherlands: the legal rules for businesses

Before you install charge points in the Netherlands, check two things: whether your grid connection has the capacity, and who will own the hardware once it is fixed to the ground. The main exception is a charge point open to the public or to visitors: then European rules on payment and pricing also apply, whoever owns the site.

Which setting are you in?

Start with three questions: whose land is it, whose connection is it, and who uses the electricity? Mixing up the three settings below is a common reason why a project stalls.

“Semi-public” is the awkward middle. Think of a car park, hotel or retail site that is privately owned but freely accessible. Access, not ownership, triggers the European rules discussed below. So if you open your charge points to visitors, you take on obligations that a purely internal installation does not have.

Is your grid connection big enough?

Often it is not, and that is usually the real limit. The problem is rarely the number of charge points you can buy; it is the transport capacity of your connection.

In the Brainport region, as in most of the country, large parts of the network are congested. Enlarging a connection can take years. Three routes matter.

• Upgrading the connection. The system operator must connect you and transport your electricity, but that duty is qualified where there is no capacity. Since 1 January 2026 the Energiewet (Energy Act) has replaced the Elektriciteitswet 1998, and the fixed connection deadline has given way to a “reasonable period” standard.
• Smart charging and load balancing. The practical answer in most cases: capping and shifting charging against your site’s load profile serves many vehicles on an existing connection. Document who sets priorities, what minimum charge is guaranteed and who is liable if a car is not charged.
• Flexible transport contracts. You accept limits on your capacity at defined times in return for a discount. Besides the non-firm ATO in congestion areas, the ACM introduced the time-block and duration-based transport rights by code decision of 16 July 2024 (Staatscourant 2024, 23594), in force from 1 April 2025.
• Congestion management contracts. Next to the capacity limitation contract, the ACM added the capacity control contract by decision of 11 December 2025 (Staatscourant 2025, 42474). The conditions now sit in the Systeemcode elektriciteit 2026. If you have promised to reduce load, you cannot then let your fleet charge at will.

The order of steps therefore matters: ask the system operator (netbeheerder) for a capacity check in writing before you order hardware.

Who owns the charge point?

Usually the owner of the land, whatever your contract says. A charge point bolted into a concrete foundation is not movable equipment.

Ownership of land includes what is durably united with it. The landowner therefore becomes owner of the charge point by operation of law, according to article 5:20 of the Dutch Civil Code (BW). This is accession (natrekking), and it happens whatever the contract says about title.

In Rechtbank Gelderland 11 May 2023, ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2023:2690, the court dealt with an energy tax case about publicly accessible charge points operated under municipal concessions. It proceeded on the basis that the charge points had become the municipalities’ property by accession, because they were durably united with the ground and no right of superficies had been granted.

How do you keep title?

With a right of superficies (opstalrecht) under article 5:101 BW. This is a registered real right that separates ownership of the installation from ownership of the land.

Use it when a third-party operator, a lease company or an employer installs on someone else’s land and wants to keep title, remove the asset or finance it. It requires a notarial deed and registration. The deed should deal with duration, compensation, access, maintenance and what happens if the land is sold. The same problem arises for solar panels on a leased roof.

Can you install charge points at leased business premises?

Only with the landlord’s consent, in most cases. Installing a charge point alters the leased property, and under article 7:215 BW that normally requires consent.

The tenant may generally remove what it added and must return the property in the agreed condition (articles 7:216 and 7:224 BW). These rules apply to business premises too, but only in residential lettings is article 7:215 BW mandatory in the tenant’s favour.

The ROZ model leases, used in almost every Dutch commercial lease, restrict alterations and impose a restoration obligation. So the statutory position is where the negotiation starts, not where it ends.

What should the consent cover?

Settle the following in writing, in the consent itself:

• Who pays: capital cost, installation, connection upgrade and maintenance, and whether any of it passes through the service charge to tenants who do not charge.
• Ownership and removal: a right of superficies if the tenant or its supplier is to keep title; otherwise an express agreement that the installation stays, and what it is worth.
• Capacity allocation in a multi-tenant building, where the first tenant to install can use up the headroom the others need.
• The electricity: separately metered, billed at cost, or recovered through the service charge, and whether the landlord passes on more than cost.

Can an apartment owner install a charge point in the shared car park?

Not on their own initiative, at present. Where the car park is a common part of a building divided into apartment rights, the owners’ association (VvE) decides.

The association manages the common parts (article 5:126 BW). An alteration to them therefore needs a decision of the meeting of owners under the deed of subdivision and the regulations.

Is the consent of the association, its organs or other owners withheld without reasonable ground? Or does the party who must give it not respond? Then the owner who needs it can ask the subdistrict court to replace that consent with an authorisation (article 5:121 BW). Where a space is to be given exclusive use, or the layout changes materially, an amendment of the deed of subdivision may be needed. That is a heavier step again.

What is changing for owners’ associations?

Two developments matter. First, in buildings using the 2017 model regulations, notifying the association may already be enough, subject to conditions.

Second, a bill amending Book 5 of the Civil Code would introduce a general notification regime. An owner meeting prescribed conditions would then only need to notify, not obtain consent, with the detail left to an order in council. The bill has been through internet consultation but had not been enacted when this article was written, and the order in council that is to set the conditions has not been published. Check the parliamentary papers before you rely on it.

Until then the association’s decision remains necessary. It should also settle metering and billing, insurance, fire safety and who pays to reinforce the building’s connection.

Who does what in a charging service?

Three parties are involved, each with its own contracts.

• The charge point operator (CPO) owns or operates the hardware and sells access.
• The e-mobility service provider (eMSP) issues the charge card or app and bills the driver, often across other networks through roaming.
• The electricity supplier supplies the connection behind the charge point.

Do you need a supply licence to bill people for charging?

Usually not, but the position becomes uncertain when you bill others for electricity from your own connection. Under Chapter 2 of the Energiewet you need a licence from the ACM to supply energy to end users with a small connection.

The ACM publishes a closed list of exceptions. These include supply within a single property you own via one connection, supply to large consumers, multisite contracts, and acting as a reseller with a licensed supplier. The list also covers supply to small connections of municipalities for their public tasks, and supply by a not-for-profit energy community to its members.

The orthodox analysis is that the operator is itself the end user behind its own connection and sells a charging service, not electricity, so no licence is needed. The ACM has issued no charge-point guidance under the Energiewet. Where a landlord recharges tenants, a VvE recharges residents or neighbours share one installation, contract through a licensed supplier or a CPO rather than becoming one.

How does public charging work?

Largely through concessions awarded by municipalities. Public charging in the Netherlands is a regulated market created by contract.

Municipalities and regional partnerships award concessions for placing and operating charge points in the public space. These are usually long-term, and often awarded collectively across dozens of municipalities. If you bid for one, you are bidding for a public contract: procurement law applies, award criteria can be challenged, and disappointed bidders do go to court.

What should you check before bidding?

• Who owns the charge points during and after the term, and whether a right of superficies is granted or accession is allowed to operate.
• The fee payable to the municipality, often per kWh charged.
• The placement process, including the traffic decision reserving the bay.
• Uptime and service levels, and tariff caps.
• Hand-back at the end of the term.

What must public charge points offer drivers?

Ad hoc charging without a contract, suitable payment options and clear prices given in advance. These rules come from Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 on alternative fuels infrastructure (AFIR), which has applied since 13 April 2024 and works directly.

The user-facing obligations sit in article 5 AFIR:

• Ad hoc charging: users must be able to charge without a contract with the operator or a service provider.
• Payment: new publicly accessible points of at least 50 kW must accept electronic payment through a payment card reader or a contactless device that reads payment cards. Below 50 kW, secure online payment, for example through a QR code, is also allowed. Points of at least 50 kW already in service before 13 April 2024 are not exempt indefinitely: along the main European road network (TEN-T) and in safe and secure parking areas, operators must retrofit them with card or contactless payment by 1 January 2027.
• Price transparency: ad hoc prices must be reasonable, transparent and non-discriminatory. They must be shown before the session starts and, at points of at least 50 kW, be based on the price per kWh, with any occupancy element shown separately.
• Service providers: an eMSP must give the driver all price components for the session, including roaming, in advance.

Ordinary Dutch consumer law applies alongside. AFIR works without Dutch implementing legislation. In the Netherlands, the ACM supervises the transparency of charging prices and contract terms, and the ACM has already called on operators to make prices clear.

What must you reimburse when an employee charges a company car at home?

The employee’s actual electricity cost, if you want the reimbursement to be untaxed. A flat national average price is not accepted.

Where an employee has an electric company car, the electricity used at home is a cost of the employer’s car, advanced by the employee. Reimbursement is therefore generally untaxed as reimbursement of intermediary costs, but only if it matches the employee’s actual cost.

In a published position, the Belastingdienst knowledge group rejected a flat national average price because the spread between employees is too wide (KG:204:2024:13). The same position leaves room for a fixed price per kWh agreed at market rates for a set period, where both parties act on commercial terms. An earlier position deals with reclaiming the charge point itself, and with using a right of superficies to keep title (KG:204:2022:5). These are high-level tax points only; take specialist tax advice on your scheme.

What belongs in the car scheme?

The employment points are separate, and belong in the car scheme or the employment contract:

• Who owns, insures and maintains the charge point at the employee’s home, and what happens when the employee leaves, moves or changes car.
• How consumption is measured and reimbursed, and what evidence of the tariff the employee must supply.
• Whether you may recover installation or removal costs on termination. That is a wage deduction question and needs an express basis.
• Private use for a second vehicle, and return of charge cards on exit.

Changing these rules on your own is difficult. A reimbursement practice that has run for years can become a term of employment.

Does the GDPR apply to charging data?

Yes. A charging session is not anonymous: charge cards, RFID tags, app accounts and roaming records tie a session to a person, a time and a place.

The operator, the service provider and the employer each need to know which of them is controller. Charging data reveals where an employee was and when. Using it beyond cost allocation needs a lawful basis under article 6 GDPR and a privacy notice. Where it amounts to monitoring, the works council must be involved. Keep retention to what billing requires.

Which building rules and permits apply?

The Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving (Bbl), under the Omgevingswet, sets how many charge points a building needs. Whether you need a permit depends on the local omgevingsplan.

The Bbl implements the charging obligations of the revised European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), and the 2026 amendments raised them. For new build and major renovation of a non-residential building with more than five parking spaces, you now need at least one charge point for every five spaces. In a building with an office function it is one for every two. On top of that come pre-cabling for at least half the spaces and ducting for the rest (article 4.160b Bbl).

Existing non-residential buildings with more than twenty parking spaces have needed at least one charge point since 1 January 2025. From 1 January 2027 they need one charge point for every ten spaces, or preparatory infrastructure for half of them. Publicly owned buildings face a further pre-cabling requirement from 1 January 2033.

What about enclosed car parks?

Charging in an enclosed car park is allowed, but it needs separate attention. There is no general prohibition. The building must meet the Bbl performance requirements, the installation must comply with the applicable standards, and the authority can impose bespoke requirements.

For new charge points in a car park beneath a building with a sleeping function, such as homes, the Bbl requires mode 3 or mode 4 charging under NEN 1010, one switch that turns off all charge points, and information at the entrance about where charging takes place. Confirm with your insurer that the building’s cover still responds.

Do you need a permit?

That turns on the site rather than on the hardware. The technical building activity is often permit-free, but the omgevingsplan can make placing a charge point an activity for which a permit is required. A departure from the plan takes considerably longer. Check the omgevingsplan of the municipality concerned through the Omgevingsloket before you order hardware.

What should you check as a tenant or business user?

Settle capacity, consent and ownership before the installer starts; a lease alteration without consent breaches article 7:215 BW.

• Ask the system operator in writing for the available capacity, and price an upgrade, smart charging and a flexible transport contract.
• Obtain the landlord’s written consent, covering cost, ownership, removal and restoration under the ROZ lease.
• Have a right of superficies (article 5:101 BW) created by notarial deed if you or your supplier are to keep title.
• Decide whether visitors may charge; if so, plan for the AFIR payment and pricing rules.
• Write home charging, reimbursement at actual cost, charge cards and exit into the car scheme.
• Put a privacy notice and processing terms in place with the operator and service provider (article 28 GDPR).

What should you check as a landlord or owners’ association?

Your consent or decision sets the terms for everyone in the building. Record it in a side letter or a resolution of the meeting of owners.

• Allocate grid capacity between tenants or apartment owners before the first installation uses it up.
• Agree who pays for the connection upgrade and whether costs pass through the service charge.
• Choose a billing model: separate metering, billing at cost or a licensed supplier, to avoid acting as an unlicensed supplier.
• Check the Bbl charge point obligations for parking areas with more than five or more than twenty spaces.
• For an enclosed car park, check the fire safety rules and confirm the building insurance still responds.
• Agree whether the installation stays or is removed when the lease or use ends.

What can we do for you with EV charging?

Our work on charging projects is part of what we do as energy lawyer for businesses, landlords and owners’ associations.

• We review your connection and transport agreement and the system operator’s capacity answer.
• We draft the landlord consent or side letter, including cost, ownership and removal.
• We prepare the right of superficies and coordinate the notarial deed.
• We assess whether your billing model needs a supply licence under the Energiewet.
• We review concession terms and tender documents before you bid.
• We draft the charging rules in your car scheme and the matching privacy notice.

Summary

• Grid capacity is usually the binding constraint: ask the system operator before you buy hardware, and consider smart charging or a flexible transport contract.
• A charge point fixed to the ground belongs to the landowner by accession (article 5:20 BW); a right of superficies (article 5:101 BW) is needed to keep title elsewhere.
• Tenants need the landlord’s consent, and apartment owners currently need a decision of the VvE; the planned notification regime is not yet law.
• Charge points open to the public or to visitors fall under AFIR: ad hoc charging, suitable payment and clear prices in advance.
• Home charging of a company car is untaxed only if you reimburse the employee’s actual cost; record the method in the car scheme.

Frequently asked questions