How to limit unwanted solicitation?

Unfortunately, entrepreneurs often have to deal with unwanted use of their contact details. Companies will send you advertising mail. Or they call you or drop by with a business offer. Salespeople do not always follow the rules in this regard. Different arrangements apply to eenmanszaken (sole proprietorships), partnerships, and legal entities.

The rules for sale people

If you have an eenmanszaak (as a self-employed person or freelancer), VOF, or maatschap, companies or organisations are not allowed to contact you just like that.

• Are you, or have you been a customer? Then they may offer products and/or services similar to those you bought previously. These rules apply to letters, emails and instant messages, calling, texting, aping, and contacting you via social media.
• Are you not (or have not been) a customer? Then you must have given permission yourself or the company must have another legal reason (in Dutch) to use your data, such as your (email) address or phone number.

In all cases, you may indicate that you no longer want them to contact you. The company must comply. These rules apply not only to commercial businesses but also to charitable organisations and political parties, for example.

Do not disrupt trade

So, your eenmanszaak, VOF, or maatschap is protected against unwanted marketing. But this protection does not apply if you have a BV, NV, or other legal entity, as this could hinder trade between such companies.

Prevent unwanted advertising or visits

Salespeople get your contact details from sources such as the KVK Business Register, business directories or your business or organisation’s website. There are also ‘data brokers’: companies that collect, analyse and sell information about businesses and organisations.

Would you like to receive less advertising in your letterbox or fewer salespeople at your door? If so, you can ‘protect’ your address details in the Business Register. An extract from the Business Register will then state that your visiting and postal addresses may not be used for advertising mail. We also refer to this as an Non-Mailing Indicator (NMI).

To turn on the notification in the KVK Business Register that you do not want to receive unsolicited mail or calls, send an email to handelsregistermail@kvk.nl. Include the following information in your email:

• name of business or KVK number
• the name of the person who is officially authorised to register, change, or deregister your business or organisation in the Business Register
• whether you want to turn on or turn off the protection of your address

If you are approached anyway, you can point out to the business that they must comply with this. You can use a sample letter from the Dutch Data Protection Authority (in Dutch) to do this. 

Should I enable NMI or shield my visiting address?

Turning on the NMI protection is not the same as completely shielding your visiting address. When your visiting address is shielded, the entire address is invisible to others in the Business Register.

You must also provide a postal address for your business or organisation. This address will be visible in the Business Register. Sellers are permitted to use this postal address if you have not activated the NMI.

For eenmanszaken, restricting access to the business address is straightforward. But for other legal structures such as a VOF, BV (private limited company), or NV (public limited company), this is only possible if there is a threat.

Be aware of what you share

If your data is public, salespeople will find it and use it. Be aware of how much personal information you share on your own social media. Sometimes your address details are publicly available there, also for organisations that want to send you advertising. Do not make it too easy for such companies. Be aware of what you share.

Remember that your business details can often be found on websites you do not know about. To get an overview of this, you can set up Google Alerts, using your company name and address as a search term. Then you will automatically be notified when these are mentioned somewhere on the internet. This will help you discover misuse of your data. Also, those Google Alerts notify you when people write things about your company online, such as a review.

Reduce unwanted emails and phone calls

Would you like to receive fewer unwanted emails and phone calls? Then make sure that your business’s email addresses and phone numbers are harder to find. Use Google Alerts to find out where your business details are listed online. You can then contact the owners of those websites and ask them to remove the information.

If you also wish to avoid receiving calls for market research, you can indicate this via the MOA Research Filter. This is a register that specifies whether or not you wish to participate in market research.

‘Hide’ your email address

There are businesses that use special programmes to scour the internet for @ symbols. Using these ‘spambots’, they collect email addresses which they then misuse.

Is your email address on your own company website? Then you can make it difficult for spambots by presenting your contact details slightly differently. For example, by not making the email address a clickable link, but presenting it in a way that only humans can understand.

You can do this by using spaces and writing ‘at’ or ‘at sign’ instead of @. You could also place the details within an image. These methods make it harder for spambots to find your email address. But, bear in mind, that some of your customers and visitors may also find this approach inconvenient.