The Netherlands Consumer Authority was created under the Dutch Consumer Protection Enforcement Act (in Dutch: 'Wet Handhaving Consumentenbescherming'). This Act has granted enforcement powers directly to the Director of the Netherlands Consumer Authority, who therefore acts at a distance of political decision-making.
The Netherlands Consumer Authority has been charged with enforcing several consumer-protection provisions, which have been laid down in various acts and regulations, some of which being of an administrative-law nature, while others of a private-law nature. The areas that these provisions cover include:
- Unfair commercial practices;
- Services Act (implementation of the Services Regulation);
- Misleading Advertising;
- E-commerce;
- Consumer purchases;
- General Contract Terms;
- Distant Selling;
- Timesharing;
- Package Travel;
- Canvassing (Doorstep selling);
- Pricing (regulations on price visibility);
- Regulation 2006/2004.
It should be noted that the Netherlands Consumer Authority is not authorised to take action in the financial sector: financial-market oversight in the Netherlands is still exclusively provided by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM).
