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A bill amending the statutory shareholder dispute resolution proceedings (geschillenregeling), which we reported on in our earlier update, has been adopted by parliament and will enter into force on 1 January 2025. The proceedings provide mechanisms for resolving disputes among shareholders in Dutch companies, in particular through a forced exit. The amendments aim to enhance the effectiveness of these proceedings.

In previous articles, we looked at several key aspects of the Dutch restructuring scheme (known as the "WHOA"), including: how the scheme operates; the ban on appealing lower court decisions; combining WHOA and US plans; and how the scheme works in practice. In other jurisdictions, insolvency proceedings similar to the WHOA are increasingly used to settle mass damages claims. A recent noteworthy example concerns Purdue Pharma, which initiated Chapter 11 proceedings to restructure its debts, consisting for a large part of mass damages claims arising from its role in the opioid crises. The WHOA may also have this potential to be used as an instrument to settle mass damages claims.

On 3 July 2024, the Dutch government published the Bill Clarifying Assessment of Employment Relations and Legal Presumption (Wet verduidelijking beoordeling arbeidsrelaties en rechtsvermoeden (VBAR)) as amended after an internet consultation. The bill introduces two additions to current legislation: (i) clarification of "relationship of authority", which is one of the defining elements of an employment agreement; and (ii) a legal presumption that an employment agreement exists, when working at an hourly rate of EUR 33 or less.