Minister Blok (EZK) informs the House of Representatives about the policy options regarding the trade-off between transparency and privacy in the Trade Register and the costing of the Trade Register. This is part of the development of a Data Vision for the Trade Register.
Dear Chairman,
The former State Secretary for Economic Affairs promised your Chamber a letter to inform you about the development of a Data Vision for the Commercial Register (HR); I hereby fulfill this promise. This letter outlines the policy options in the area of balancing transparency and privacy in the HR and in the area of costing the HR. On both points the preparation of concrete proposals will be continued, so that the new cabinet can make policy choices on these points. The Netherlands has had a public HR for over 100 years. This register provides useful information and (legal) certainty, among other things about the existence and composition of legal entities and companies and the identity of authorized representatives of companies. Furthermore, the register provides a location for company-related public documents such as filed annual accounts. In this way, the HR contributes to safe and responsible business. Social developments such as digitization have made the HR increasingly accessible and user-friendly over time, but this is also accompanied by an increase in nuisance, including in the form of unwanted commercial approach and acquisition fraud. In recent years, there has been an increase in aggression against individuals, with the available address data in particular being misused for doxing, harassment and threats.
This is a worrisome development.
Read the rest of the Chamber letter.
