The Chamber of Commerce (CoC) is drawing the short straw. The interim relief judge of the Central Netherlands ruled Friday that the administrator of the Trade Register must continue to sell information to suppliers of credit and business information under the current conditions. But that may come to an end if the data suppliers are ruled against in the proceedings on the merits that are currently ongoing. Het Financieele Dagblad was the first to write about the court ruling.
The Chamber of Commerce provides information and advice to entrepreneurs. It also manages the Trade Register, an independent administrative body. All companies, entrepreneurs, sole traders and other entities that participate in economic traffic are registered in it. So you know who you are doing business with, how to contact someone, where the company is located and whether a company is under guardianship of a trustee.
Anyone can access the contents of the Trade Register to request company information. For a small fee it is possible to purchase an extract, company profile, annual accounts and other relevant information. These documents are managed exclusively by the Chamber of Commerce. Data providers offer this information to their clients. Among other things, they use it to chart the financial health of companies.
Currently, suppliers of credit and business information buy some of this information from the Chamber of Commerce. They can use this information for multiple clients and in some cases pass it on one-to-one. The CoC feels that this is not acceptable and wants to put an end to these practices. Therefore, as of December 1 of this year, the Trade Register administrator has terminated the contract with the data suppliers.
The Chamber of Commerce offered them a new contract, under which the agency sets stricter conditions for the use of data derived from the Trade Register. Under the new conditions, the information purchased by data suppliers may only be passed on to one customer. If a party wants to sell the same information to another customer, that company must again purchase this information from the Chamber of Commerce. The agency says this way it can better protect the privacy of entrepreneurs.
The Chamber of Commerce believes it has this right because it allegedly has database rights. In fact, the organization invests heavily in managing the Trade Register. To defray these costs, the body must demand money from customers.
The Association For Business B2B Information (VVZBI), disagrees with this reading. The association argues that the Chamber of Commerce has no database right because it is a government service. A public service that, nota bene, is funded with public money. In addition, the new terms would violate the Reuse of Government Information Act.
To prove its case, the trade association went to the preliminary relief judge of the Central Netherlands District Court. There VVZBI tried to take the new contract of the Chamber of Commerce off the table. The first hearing of these proceedings on the merits is expected to take place in the second half of this year. The final ruling will most likely follow early next year.
On Friday, the court issued an interim ruling. The court ruled that the CoC may not impose the new conditions on data suppliers as of December 1. At the same time, the judge said that the trade association has not yet made it sufficiently plausible that the CoC does not have database rights. This means that in the future the Chamber of Commerce may be allowed to impose requirements on the use of information from the Trade Register. The requirements must then comply with other laws.
Both the Chamber of Commerce and the trade association say they are "pleased" with the court's ruling.
