News

In practice: FAQ’s most frequently asked questions about the Dutch Franchise Act

In our previous newsletters, we discussed the introduction of the Dutch Franchise Act (the “Act” or “Franchise Act”). This Act is effective as of 1 January 2021 and is of mandatory law. Some legal obligations were subject to an implementation deadline until 31 December 2022. This deadline has now expired.

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Refunding study costs by employees limited by new legislation

It used to be quite common – especially in the case of the more expensive courses – for employers to agree with employees that upon termination of the employment contract, the employee would refund (part of) the study costs. As of 1 August 2022, the Transparent and Predictable Employment Conditions Act (Wet transparant en voorspelbare arbeidsvoorwaarden) will severely limit the possibility to recover such costs from the employee.

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Illegally Obtained Evidence II

The possible unlawfulness of evidence is, in principle, secondary to establishing the truth in employment law. The admissibility of evidence was yet again recently raised in another case before the subdistrict court of Haarlem[2] [PA2] (albeit briefly). In the case in question, the employee clocked in with his personal pass after entering work, then logged in on his computer and regularly left work again via an emergency exit (without a pass reader).

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FRANCHISE ALERT: January 1, 2023 is the deadline for implementation of the Dutch Franchise Act. Is your franchise agreement compliant?

The Dutch Franchise Act went into effect on January 1, 2021. The Act is mandatory law and franchisors and franchisees were required to conduct themselves in accordance with the Act as of that date. Specific contractual adjustments also had to be implemented immediately in new franchise agreements and renewal agreements.  A two-year transition period applies to current franchise agreements. This expires on January 1, 2023. Franchise organizations still have three months to comply with the implementation obligation.

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Illegally obtained evidence

In employment law, unlawfully obtained evidence generally counts as evidence because fact-finding generally outweighs the right to privacy. However, the sub district court of The Hague recently ruled differently. In that particular matter, an employer had secretly recorded a number of telephone conversations of one of its employees working as a sales representative.

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Tightening of statutory payment terms from 60 to 30 days as of 1 July 2022

On 1 July 2017, the Act to amend Book 6 of the Dutch Civil Code in connection with combating unreasonably long payment terms entered into force. This was a private member’s bill regulating that large companies cannot agree on a payment term of more than 60 days in their commercial relationship with SMEs in situations where the large company acts as debtor and the SME acts as creditor

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