Netherlands cold calling rules in 2026: B2B calls after 1 July

Since 1 Jul 2026, Netherlands cold calling rules require prior consent for sales calls to consumers, sole traders and partnerships, even when they are already your customers. Live calls by a rep to companies such as a BV or NV are still possible, because the consent rule covers natural persons. The person you reach can still object, and you must stop.

That split decides most of a Dutch calling list. A rep in London with 400 Dutch contacts can’t treat them as one list anymore. Some can be called this afternoon, some need a consent record first, and some can’t be called at all.

What changed on 1 Jul 2026

Before July, a company could call its own customers and former customers about similar products without fresh consent, as long as it offered an opt-out. That exception is gone. The Dutch government’s business portal says you may not call consumers without consent “even if they are, or have been your customer”, and gives 1 Jul 2026 as the date the change took effect.

Three groups keep the old customer exception, according to the ACM’s announcement of 25 Jun 2026:

• charities;
• lotteries that give money to charities;
• publishers of daily newspapers, weeklies and magazines.

The ACM also says that consent must be given in advance and be explicit, that it may not be collected by phone during a service call, and that people can withdraw it at any time.

Who you can call: the decision table

The rule sits in article 11.7 of the Telecommunications Act. Paragraph 1 requires prior consent for automated calls without a person on the line, faxes and electronic messages, whoever receives them. Paragraph 2 extends that consent rule to other channels, including a live call by a rep, when the person called is a natural person.

Who answers	Live call by a rep	Automated or prerecorded call
Employee at a BV, NV or other legal entity	No consent needed under article 11.7; GDPR objections apply	Prior consent needed
Sole trader (eenmanszaak), zzp’er	Prior consent needed	Prior consent needed
Partnership (vof, maatschap)	Prior consent needed	Prior consent needed
Consumer, including your own customers	Prior consent needed	Prior consent needed
Business outside the EEA	Local rules of that country apply (11.7(3)(b))	Local rules apply

The ACM’s page on telephone sales names the eenmanszaak, vof and maatschap as natural persons, and its July announcement says zzp’ers and vofs get more protection from 1 July. In practice, a freelancer’s mobile number is a consumer number for these rules.

There is one narrow exception in paragraph 3(a). A business or professional can be contacted without consent at contact details it has published specifically for receiving unsolicited commercial messages, used for that purpose. A general phone number on a website is not the same thing. If you plan to rely on this exception, check it with your counsel first.

A worked example

Example numbers. A software company exports 500 Dutch contacts from its CRM:

Group	Contacts	What the team can do
Managers at BVs and NVs, no prior objection	310	Live calls by reps, with an objection line on every call
Sole traders and partners in vofs	95	Email or LinkedIn first to ask for consent; no call until it is recorded
Former customers who are consumers	60	No calls; ask for consent through the account or by email
Contacts who objected before	35	Do-not-call list; no calls

So 310 of 500 contacts, or 62%, can go into a call block today. The other 190 need a consent record or stay off the list. Before July, the 60 former customers could have been called under the old exception.

The legal form is often visible in the company name (B.V., N.V., V.O.F.). When it isn’t, check the Chamber of Commerce (KVK) record before the contact goes into a call list.

On the call itself

Even for a lawful call to a BV, three rules matter.

1. Show a number. Article 11.7(8) bars callers from blocking caller ID on unsolicited commercial calls. The ACM adds that the number should be a real one where you can be reached, free or at a normal call rate.
2. Say who you are and why you’re calling. The ACM asks callers to give their name, the company they call for and that the call is about a sale.
3. Handle objections at once. The person you reach at a BV is still a data subject under the GDPR. Article 21 of the GDPR gives them the right to object to direct marketing at any time, and their data may then no longer be used for it.

An opening line in Dutch that covers all three:

“Goedemiddag, u spreekt met Daan van Northwind Software. Ik bel u met een commercieel aanbod voor uw finance-team. Wilt u niet meer door ons gebeld worden, dan zeg ik dat direct toe.”

If the person objects, add the number to your do-not-call list the same day, not at the end of the week.

What a usable consent record looks like

The ACM says you need proof, per person, that you may call them. A record that holds up in a review has:

• who gave consent, and the phone number it covers;
• the date and the channel (web form, signed form, email reply);
• the exact wording the person agreed to, including which products or services it covers;
• how the person can withdraw, and any withdrawal with its date.

Pre-ticked boxes don’t count, and consent collected during an unrelated service call doesn’t either.

How DialSavvy handles this

DialSavvy runs the numbers and caller ID as the carrier, so every call shows a registered number. Before each call it checks calling hours in the contact’s time zone and your do-not-call list, using a rule pack for the country. See how the compliance checks work, the planned dialing modes by country and how caller ID is set up for each market.

For the wider European picture, see GDPR and B2B cold calling and France’s 2026 consent rule. As of October 2026, check wetten.overheid.nl for later changes.

Book a demo and bring your Dutch list: we’ll show you how the checks run on it before the first call.