Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012 - American Chamber of ...

Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012
A development is that as of 1 July 2010, the Code of Civil Procedure
provides that an agreement that has been entered into electronically
shall have binding evidential value such as an agreement in writing.
13.9.4 Consumer Protection
In 2007, a new authority (Consumentenautoriteit) for the protection of
the collective interests of consumers was founded. This authority has
been vested with certain public powers to enforce consumer law.
How this enforcement will crystallize in practice has yet to be seen.
The authority has announced that it will especially focus on Internet
trade.
13.10 Encryption
Although in the past, the Dutch government had expressed its
intention to introduce a bill dealing with the use and availability of
encrypted software (a draft of such a bill already circulated in 1994
and which was heavily criticized and never made it as a bill), still, no
such bill has been introduced. It does not seem likely that legislative
initiatives will ensue in this context in the near future.
13.11 Data Protection
The 2001 Data Protection Act (Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens)
imposes a number of obligations on parties that collect and control
personal data. What constitutes personal data is largely a question of
fact. It is important to verify whether a notification should be filed
with the Dutch Data Protection Authority. Likewise, transfer outside
the EU triggers specific requirements.
13.12 Computer Crime
The 1993 Dutch Act on Computer Crime (Wet computercriminaliteit)
contains criminal provisions related to computers. Deletion of data
and the addition of worms or viruses that lead to damage may
constitute a criminal offense (although the definition of a virus is
Baker & McKenzie 117