Non-solicitation clause (relatiebeding)

A non-solicitation clause (relatiebeding) prevents a departing employee from approaching or working for the employer’s clients, suppliers or other business contacts for a defined period. It is a narrower relative of the non-compete clause: the employee may join a competitor, but may not take the relationships along.

Legal basis

Dutch law does not treat the non-solicitation clause as a separate category. It falls under Article 7:653 of the Dutch Civil Code, which means the same conditions apply: it must be agreed in writing with an adult employee, and in a fixed-term contract it needs a written justification of compelling business interests. The court has the same power to annul or limit it and to award compensation.

How it works in practice

Because it is narrower, a non-solicitation clause survives judicial scrutiny more often than a full non-compete. Courts weigh how the relationship arose: contacts the employee brought with them, or built up entirely on their own initiative, are treated differently from a client portfolio handed over by the employer.

Drafting decides how useful the clause is. A clause that covers every contact in the employer’s CRM system is likely to be cut back, while one limited to clients the employee actually served in, say, the final year of employment is far more defensible. It also matters whether the clause bars only active approaches or any contact at all, including a client who approaches the employee unprompted.

Where it goes wrong

Employers frequently combine a non-compete and a non-solicitation clause without thinking through the overlap, and then invoke both. The result is often that a court trims the pair back to the non-solicitation clause alone. On the employee’s side, the common error is assuming that a passive move is safe: several clauses are drafted broadly enough to catch the client who called first.