Cold Calling Laws in the Netherlands (2026): Bel-me-niet to Opt-In

October 15, 2026. Since 1 July 2026, a company may phone a Dutch consumer, sole proprietor, vof or maatschap to sell something only if that person gave explicit prior consent. Being a current or former customer no longer counts, except for charities, charity lotteries and newspaper and magazine publishers. The Bel-me-niet Register, the do-not-call list many guides still mention, closed on 1 July 2021, when the Netherlands switched to opt-in. Live calls to companies with legal personality, such as a BV or NV, sit outside the consent rule for calls, but automated calls need prior consent from businesses as well as consumers, subject to narrow exceptions, which matters for anyone planning AI voice agents for Dutch outbound.

The rules below come from article 11.7 of the Telecommunicatiewet, the Dutch Telecommunications Act, in the version in force from 15 August 2026, and from guidance and news releases of the regulator, the Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM), all read 15 October 2026. We build AI voice agents and consent-first AI calling, so this guide focuses on how calling teams apply the rules. Treat this as a map, not legal advice.

What changed on 1 July 2026

The Netherlands has tightened telemarketing twice in five years. On 1 July 2021 it moved from an opt-out system to opt-in: a company could call a consumer only with consent, or if the person was a customer or had been one in the last three years. On 1 July 2026 the customer exception went too. According to the ACM's announcement, consumers and small entrepreneurs, meaning self-employed people (zzp'ers) and general partnerships (vof's), may now be called with a commercial offer only if they gave explicit permission in advance.

Three details in the ACM's guidance change how calling teams work:

• Consent cannot be collected on a service call. The ACM gives this as an example of consent that does not meet the legal requirements.
• The exceptions are narrow. Charities, lotteries that give money to charities, and publishers of newspapers, weeklies and magazines may still call people who were customers in the last three years, and only about the same kind of product.
• The ACM has noticed last-minute consent drives. Before the deadline, the ACM said it saw companies rushing to get consent for future calls, and it urged people to think before agreeing.

The Bel-me-niet Register no longer exists

Searches for the Bel-me-niet Register are still common, but the register is gone. When the 2021 rules took effect, the ACM's consumer site announced that the register would disappear because the new rules made it unnecessary: once calls needed consent or a customer relationship, a national opt-out list was no longer needed. Since July 2026 even the customer route has closed for most companies.

For a calling team this means there is no national list to scrub against. What protects you is your own evidence: a record of each person's consent, and your own do-not-call list of everyone who has objected.

Who you may call without consent

The consent rule for live calls in article 11.7 covers natural persons. The ACM's rules for businesses spell out that this includes consumers and other natural persons such as a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak), vof or maatschap. A separate rule in the same article covers automated calling systems, and it applies to end users generally, companies included, subject to the narrow exceptions below.

Article 11.7 also has two narrow exceptions for business recipients: contact details a business has published specifically for receiving commercial offers, and recipients based outside the European Economic Area where that country's rules are met. Charities, charity lotteries and publishers have their own customer exceptions, described above.

Two cautions on the BV row. A call to a named person at a BV still involves their personal data, so the GDPR applies, including the right to object to direct marketing. And the line between a one-person BV and a sole trader is easy to get wrong from a lead list, so check the legal form in the Chamber of Commerce (KVK) register before relying on the B2B route.

What valid consent looks like

According to the ACM, you need proof per person that you were allowed to call, and the consent must:

1. Cover the product or service you are calling about.
2. Still be valid, for example not withdrawn.
3. Be a deliberate choice, not a pre-ticked box and not given under pressure.
4. Be easy to withdraw.

Store the wording the person agreed to, the date, the channel and the products it covers. If a complaint reaches the ACM, that record is your defense.

Rules for every sales call

Even with consent, each call has to meet the ACM's conduct rules:

• Real number: call from a visible number on which you can be reached free or at normal rates. Article 11.7 also forbids blocking caller ID on unsolicited calls.
• Clear identity: say your name, the company you call for, and that you want to sell something.
• Right to object: tell the person in every call that they can object, and remove the number at once when they say they do not want more calls. Saying so during a call withdraws earlier consent.
• Written agreement for subscriptions: phone sales of service subscriptions, telephone, internet or TV subscriptions, and energy or water contracts bind the customer only after they agree in writing to a contract sent by post or email. For other products, clear agreement you can prove, for example with a voice log, is enough.
• Cooling-off: consumers who sign up by phone have 14 days to change their mind.

AI voice agents and automated calls

Article 11.7 bans the use of automated calling and communication systems without human intervention for unsolicited commercial messages unless the sender can prove the end user's prior consent. That rule is separate from the 2026 change and it is not limited to consumers. A voice agent that dials and holds the conversation with no person on the line appears to fit that description on a plain reading. On that reading, an AI agent cold calling a BV would need consent, even though a human could make the same call without it. Neither the statute nor the ACM guidance cited here addresses AI voice agents directly.

The law does not say where AI assistance becomes "without human intervention", so the cautious approach is to treat AI-led outbound calls as automated. In practice that points Dutch AI calling toward consented lists, callbacks people have requested, and inbound calls, which is how we would set up AI voice agents for the Dutch market. If you call several countries, our cold calling laws by country guide compares how each treats AI voices, and the Germany and Austria guide covers the neighboring market.

What the ACM can fine

Under article 15.4(2) of the Telecommunicatiewet, the ACM can fine a company up to €900,000 or, if higher, 1 percent of its turnover for breaking these rules, and it can also impose orders subject to penalty payments. The ACM is actively supervising telemarketing. In July 2025 the ACM said unwanted sales calls are the problem it receives the most reports about, began auditing energy and telecom companies, and stressed chain liability: the company that commissions a call center is responsible for the calls made on its behalf. In April 2026 it said investigations into several companies were under way.

Checklist for calling into the Netherlands

1. Identify the legal form of every prospect: natural persons need consent, BVs and NVs do not for live calls.
2. Collect explicit, product-specific consent outside the sales call, never on a service call, and store the proof.
3. Stop relying on past purchases: since 1 July 2026 they no longer justify a call, unless you are a charity, charity lottery or publisher.
4. Call from a visible number that rings back to you, and introduce yourself, your company and your purpose.
5. Offer the right to object on every call and keep your own do-not-call list, since there is no national register.
6. Get prior consent before any automated or AI-led call, including calls to businesses.
7. Hold call centers working for you to the same rules, because the liability comes back to you.

Email is stricter for B2B, because consent is needed for companies too, with narrow exceptions; our guide to cold email laws in the Netherlands covers them. If you want Dutch outbound built on consent from the start, we set up consent-first AI calling with the records and opt-outs built in.