Menno de Wijs

Three companies—Google, Amazon and Microsoft—together account for 70% of the European cloud market. European providers each hold a market share of approximately 2%. This is more than just a market statistic. It reflects a balance of power that directly affects who can, in practice, access the data held by Dutch public sector organisations and which laws govern that access. The Dutch government has decided that this needs to change. In a memorandum published in June 2026, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations’ NDS Cloud Programme explains how the government intends to build its own sovereign cloud service. The document is concrete in its approach, setting out a timeline, a selected scenario, a technical strategy and an honest acknowledgement of the challenges involved.

The Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal (the “Enterprise Chamber”) delivered its ruling on 28 April 2026 in a case brought by the Temporary Works Council (the “TOR”) of the Identification and Screening of Asylum Seekers Service (Dienst Identificatie en Screening Asielzoekers, “DISA”) (ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2026:1105). The Enterprise Chamber ruled that the TOR had no right to be consulted on the decision to treat the reorganisations at DISA and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) as separate processes, without transferring personnel between them. According to the Enterprise Chamber, the decision concerned the allocation of public-law responsibilities between government services and therefore fell within the scope of the political primacy principle set out in Article 46d of the Dutch Works Councils Act (Wet op de ondernemingsraden, or WOR). Notably, however, the Enterprise Chamber described the decision-making process as “highly careless”. This finding did not lead to a different legal conclusion.

The government aims to provide greater certainty and clarity for self-employed professionals and their clients. To that end, on 1 October 2026, it submitted the draft Self-Employment Act (Zelfstandigenwet) for public consultation. The proposed Act seeks to answer a fundamental question: when can businesses engage self-employed professionals, and when can individuals work as self-employed professionals, with certainty that the relationship does not constitute employment? By establishing clear rules in advance, the government aims to create a safe harbour for those who meet and comply with these requirements. What exactly does the proposed Self-Employment Act entail, and what does it mean for businesses engaging self-employed professionals?