What must be on a business website in the Netherlands?

What must be on every business website?

Every business website shows the details with which a visitor can find and reach you. The Dutch Civil Code (article 3:15d) requires them to be easily, directly and permanently available, and the ACM and the RVO spell that out. In a doubtful case the ACM or a lawyer decides.

Take, for example, a self-employed accountant with a sole proprietorship who works from home and wants a website with a contact form. What has to be on it?

Put them on one page, with a fixed link at the bottom of every page. Then they can be found from anywhere, which is what the law asks. The ACM names the VAT ID for anyone who provides services or sells online.

Which number do you put on it: the VAT ID or the turnover tax number?

You put the VAT ID (btw-id) on your website. It looks like NL, nine digits, the letter B and two digits, and it is meant for customers and suppliers: on invoices, letterheads and your website.

The turnover tax number (omzetbelastingnummer) is meant for your contact with the Tax Administration. For a sole proprietorship it consists of your citizen service number (BSN) followed by the letter B and two digits, whereas the VAT ID contains no BSN (Belastingdienst). If you put the turnover tax number on your website, you publish your BSN. When you copy it from your accounting software, check that you pick the VAT ID.

Does your home address have to be on the website?

If it is your business address in the Trade Register and it is not shielded: yes. The RVO lists the visiting address among the required details, unless it is shielded.

You can shield it. According to the KvK a sole proprietorship can always do so. You then need a postal address in the Trade Register that is not your home address, and that postal address is public. Shielding in the register is not enough if your address stays on your own website. If it is shielded, the RVO says the visiting address does not have to be on it.

If you also sell to consumers, it is less clear. Article 6:230m then asks for a geographical address, and the text of the law does not say whether a postal address meets that. The ACM decides that question.

Decide this before the website goes live. Once something is online, it is copied and hard to take back. If you work from home and do not want your address public, shield it before you publish it.

Does your website process personal data?

If your website processes personal data, a privacy statement is always required, says the RVO on the basis of the GDPR. A name and an email address from a contact form are personal data, and so are a newsletter sign-up, a booking, an account and an order.

A privacy statement says in plain language (article 13 of the GDPR):

• who you are and how to reach you;
• which data you process and why, and on what basis;
• to whom you pass it on, such as your hosting provider, your bookkeeper or a newsletter service;
• how long you keep it;
• which rights visitors have, such as access and deletion.

Put a visible reference to the statement next to every form. The text has to match what you really do: a statement that promises you store nothing, while your form puts everything in a mailbox, is worse than no statement.

Does your website need a cookie banner?

A cookie banner is needed only for cookies that require consent. The RVO distinguishes two kinds. Cookies that collect privacy-sensitive information, such as tracking and profiling, need consent in advance: the visitor must actively agree and be able to refuse, and withdrawing it must be just as easy. A pre-ticked box does not count, and neither does continuing to browse. Necessary and functional cookies, and analytical cookies with little effect on privacy, need no consent; you do have to tell visitors you place them, for example in your privacy statement.

Most websites end up with a banner because of what is embedded in them: an advertising pixel, an embedded video or map, or statistics that follow visitors. A website without those parts needs no banner. This is how you check: open your website in a private window, open your browser’s developer tools and look under Application or Storage at the cookies placed after loading, and under Network at requests to other parties. If something is there that you did not place yourself, it belongs to an embedded part: remove that part, or ask for consent. This often happens on a website made with a tool; a website made by AI gives the list to go through. The rules for the banner itself are in does my website need a cookie banner.

Looking for a new website that can do without a cookie banner? Request a quote and list the parts it needs, such as a form, a map or a video.

What applies if you sell online to consumers?

Anyone who sells online to consumers has more duties, and they start before the sale. Before a consumer is bound by a distance contract you have to inform them (Dutch Civil Code, article 6:230m). That covers, among other things:

• the main characteristics of what you sell;
• who you are, and your address, phone number and email address;
• the total price, including all taxes, and the shipping and delivery costs;
• how the consumer pays, when you deliver and how you handle complaints;
• the right of withdrawal: the conditions, the period, how the consumer exercises it, and the model form;
• who pays the cost of returning the goods;
• the statutory warranty;
• the duration of the contract and how it is cancelled, for a subscription.

The consumer has fourteen days to change their mind. If the information about the right of withdrawal is missing, that period runs on until the information is given, by at most twelve months more (article 6:230o). Put the information clearly and easy to find on your website, and let the customer save the terms. If you sell only to businesses, the cooling-off period and the duty to inform consumers do not apply.

Does your website have to be accessible?

In practice only if you sell online to consumers and are not a micro-enterprise. Since 28 June 2025 a web shop (an online service with which consumers can conclude a contract online) has had to be accessible. The ACM supervises this and there is no transition period. The standard is WCAG 2.1 level AA, and the ACM expects WCAG 2.2 level AA to become the new standard in 2026.

A micro-enterprise is exempt. That is a business with fewer than ten employees that also has an annual turnover or a balance-sheet total of at most two million euros. A website that only informs and on which no contract is concluded falls, by the ACM’s description, outside these rules. If you are outside the rules, an accessible website is still better: people who cannot see, cannot use a mouse or are on a small phone can reach your business with it. Does my website have to be accessible works it out.

What is not mandatory?

Three things that many entrepreneurs think they must have are not mandatory. A disclaimer is not required, says the Ondernemersplein: it is a statement by you and changes nothing about your liability, which is set by law. General terms and conditions are not required either; if you use them, the customer must be able to read them before the contract is concluded, or they are not valid. And a website itself is not mandatory: the rules above apply as soon as you have one.

What do you need? Four questions

Four questions show what applies to your website:

1. Do you have a website for your business? Then you need the details from the table, on one page with a link at the bottom of every page.
2. Is there a form, a sign-up, an account or a booking on it? Then you need a privacy statement, with a reference next to every form.
3. Does the website place cookies that require consent, such as for tracking, itself or through an embedded part from another party? Then you need the visitor’s consent, and so a banner. If not, you do not.
4. Do you sell online to consumers? Then you must give the information in article 6:230m, and you are bound by the accessibility rules unless you are a micro-enterprise.

Want to see your homepage with the required details already in their place? Ask for a free preview, and decide afterwards whether to go further.

Frequently asked questions

If you want us to build the website

You can put the details and texts the law asks for on your website yourself, and for most businesses that is a few hours of work. If we build the website, we place the details and the privacy statement, and we build it without cookies that require consent, unless you want something that needs them. A five-page business website starts at €995 with us; the cost breakdown shows what raises the price. Request a quote for your website and tell us what kind of business you run, and we put in the details that apply to you. The text of your privacy statement has to fit your business: for a special situation, such as health data or children, a lawyer decides. For lawyers and legal advisers, law firm website cost in the Netherlands sets out what the Bar and the services directive ask for on top.

See an example website quote first.