As per 1 July 2025, the new Dutch law on the abolition of assignment prohibitions entered into force. This law makes the Dutch financial market more accessible for companies seeking loans. At the same time, this law might seriously impact existing financial and commercial contracts. In this blog, lawyer Mathijs van Riet will highlight the most important changes.

Standard provisions that limit the right to assign or pledge receivables

In many Dutch commercial contracts standard provisions are included that prohibit the creditor to assign or pledge its receivables under the contract. Most of the times, this is because the debtor wishes to maintain in control over who its creditors are and who it has to pay. These standard provisions limit the creditor in its financing options, as most financial institutions require their clients to pledge their receivables under their commercial contracts.

New law applies to new AND old commercial contracts

The new law will immediately apply to all commercial contracts that are concluded on or after 1 July 2025. But that’s not all. Whereas in most cases new legislation only applies to contracts that are concluded after the law has entered into force, this new law will also apply to contracts that were concluded before 1 July 2025.

Have your contracts checked

Therefore, also existing commercial contracts are affected by this new law, provided that for existing contracts a transit period of three months applies. Parties to exiting commercial contracts therefore have three months to make their contracts compliant. If the parties fail to do so, the provisions on the prohibition of assignment and pledge will still be considered as void.

Do you have any questions on commercial contacts? Please contact us at Spiegeler Advocaten.