1. Trade register law (10): This law contains all the rules of a base register of companies and legal people of the Netherlands.
If you set up your own company you have to give information to the Chamber of Commerce and they have to put this in the trade register. This information contains:
- Name and address
- If available: Phone number, fax number, e-mail address, internet address and the mailing address
- The data concerning the location
- Officials and authorized signers of the document
- The curator if there is a bankruptcy
- Total amount of employees
According to the trade register law, the Chamber of Commerce has to include these data in the trade register to achieve a couple of purposes. The first purpose is that entrepreneurs can find out with whom they can do business, and who might be their business partners or costumers. This will advance the legal security in the trading operation. In my case, I can search for the other fruit and vegetable business and discover if it is possible for me to work together with them if I am interested in or forced to cooperate.
The second purpose is to provide the general data of the structure of the companies and legal people.
And the last purpose is that governments can get data about the companies out of the trade register instead of asking it separately to the company itself. This saves time and administrative costs.
If I set up my own business, I have to give the above mentioned data to the Chamber of Commerce and then they can achieve their purposes as much as possible.
2. Company name law (11)
This law puts certain conditions on the company name and these conditions are described in this law. This law has eleven articles but I will summarize the most relevant ones.
At first it is not allowed for the business to have a company name which doesn*t corresponds to the company and its legal form, Or if people get the impression that your company belongs to more than one person which isn*t the case in reality. The name shouldn*t be confusing according to the ownership of it. For example, your company*s name is Lisa Ltd. but this company isn*t a private limited company.
It is also not allowed to have a company’s name from a company who had that name earlier. Or a name which is slightly different from another (earlier) name. This might also cause confusion amongst the public. And it is not allowed to include brand names in your company*s name. then you will attack the trademark of other companies.
So, I need to make sure I have checked all of these aspects and keep them in my mind if I choose a name for my company.
3. Law about the annual account
This law doesn’t have many requirements for people running an one-man business. The only thing they need to make sure is that their balance and their profit and loss account is submitted at the Chamber of Commerce. Because if there are certain authorities who would like to cooperate with you or who want to lend you money, they can have a look if it is worthy for them to lend you the money.
4. Law about the working conditions (12)
This law describes guidelines for the employer and employee concerning the safety, health and the well-being of the employee. This is mainly to prevent accident or illnesses during work. This law includes three different levels in which the rules are described:
* Working condition law:
This is a base of the legislation concerning the working conditions. There are no specific rules described, those are written down with more detail in the working condition decision and the working condition regulation.
* Working condition decision:
This is an elaboration of the working condition law. In this decision rules are described that are valid for the employer and employee. These rules are obliged and workers have to adhere to them because they are set up to prevent risks at work. The rules can differ per work sector.
* Working condition regulation:
This is a further elaboration of the working condition decision. In this regulation mainly specific guidelines are described.
According to all described above, the employer and employee have separate rules and obligations they have to adhere to.
So, in accordance with this law, I need to keep promise to the rules that they set up for the employer as well as for the employee.
5. Law about the environmental management (13)
This law determines which legal tool can be inserted to protect the environment and it includes financial aspects as well, like taxes, indemnities and contributions. This law gives general rules concerning waste materials, publicity of environmental data and profession possibilities and principles where it does apply for. Just like the law about the working conditions are the specific rules worked out in other levels of the law but in this case they are worked out in decisions and ministerial regulations.
All companies need to have an environmental licence in which the requirements are written down that give the environment the biggest possible protection.
So for my company I need to make sure that I will have the environmental licence I need.
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