Monitoring your self‑employed contractor (ZZP'ers) population using Generative AI

In order for a self-employed individual to be considered an employee under Dutch law, it will have to be examined whether the relationship meets the statutory requirements for an employment contract. For an employment contract to exist, the following elements, based on section 7:610 Dutch Civil Code, must be present:

1. personal performance of work;
2. in exchange for payment of wages;
3. a relationship of authority;
4. for a certain period of time.

When assessing whether a legal relationship meets the four conditions for an employment contract pursuant to Section 7:610 of the Dutch Civil Code, attention should be paid to all the circumstances of the case, viewed in conjunction with each other. The manner in which the parties have carried out their legal relationship and thus have given it substance will be leading. It is therefore irrelevant whether the parties actually intended to classify the employment relationship under the statutory regulation on employment contracts. The foregoing may therefore mean that there can be an employment contract even if the contract indicates otherwise. If the execution of the contract shows the characteristics of an employment contract at any time, a contract to provide services may also be converted into an employment contract during the term of the contract.

In recent case law of the Supreme Court (notably, the Deliveroo and Uber rulings), the qualification of the employment contract (and its holistic assessment) has once again been addressed, offering further clarification regarding the statutory criteria set out in Section 7:610 of the Dutch Civil Code. In the Deliveroo ruling of 24 March 2023, the Supreme Court held that the following considerations may be of importance when qualifying the contractual relationship with a self-employed individual:

• The nature and duration of the activities
• The manner in which the activities and working hours are determined
• The embedding of the work and the self-employed individual in the organization and business operations of the organization
• The existence or absence of an obligation to perform the work personally
• The manner in which the contractual relationship between the parties was established
• The manner in which remuneration is determined and paid
• The level of remuneration
• The extent to which the self-employed individual performing the activities bears commercial risk
• The extent to which the self-employed individual acts or can act as an entrepreneur in the economic market
• The significance of contractual terms for the self-employed individual 

In the Uber ruling of 21 February 2025, the Supreme Court emphasized that the ninth Deliveroo criterion, which concerns the self-employed individual’s external entrepreneurship, is equally important as the other factors identified in the Deliveroo case and must therefore be fully considered when qualifying the contractual relationship with the self-employed individual.

On 27 January 2026 the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam gave judgment in the proceedings between FNV and Uber, following preliminary questions that had earlier been referred to the Supreme Court. The court emphasized that the classification of the employment relationship must be assessed for each individual driver, as personal circumstances can be decisive. According to the court, a general determination on the classification for groups of workers is not possible. External entrepreneurship must be taken into account: investments, risks, an independent strategy and multiple clients carry significant weight.

As of 1 January 2025, the enforcement moratorium (handhavingsmoratorium) under the Deregulation Assessment of Employment Relationships Act (DBA Act) has been lifted. The lifting of the enforcement moratorium is one of the pillars to try to restore the balance in the Dutch labour market and make the regulations around self-employment more future-proof. Although the way in which the legal criteria around (re)classification of workers should be interpreted has not yet been fully clarified, our Dutch Tax Authorities will fully resume enforcement of the DBA Act. This means the Dutch Tax Authorities can once again impose fines immediately and no longer need to issue a warning before inspecting an employer’s records. 

In this context, it is important to note that the Dutch Tax Authorities follow civil law. So, the civil court's interpretation of the Deliveroo criteria also applies to the Dutch Tax Authorities.

For the year 2025, the Dutch Tax Authorities will not impose administrative fines (vergrijpboetes or verzuimboetes) in cases of false self-employment. As from 2026, they may impose punitive fines (vergrijpboetes), but not yet default fines (verzuimboetes).

Enforcement Plan for Employment Relationships Tranche 2025

The Enforcement Plan for Employment Relationships Tranche 2025 aims for an integrated approach against pseudo-self-employment with a 'soft landing', partly through the gradual integration model, whereby enforcement will revert to 1 January 2025, unless there is evidence of malicious intent.

Amended Penalty Policy

• No fines for non-compliance or breaches in 2025

• In 2026, no non-compliance fines will be imposed, but administrative fines may be imposed.

Model Agreements

• Motion adopted that model agreements will remain in effect.
• Current approved model agreements will be honoured until the end of 2029, provided they comply with new laws, regulations, and case law.

Meet Clause

Clause significantly saves time in assessing service agreements from both a civil law and tax perspective and reduces the likelihood of human errors.

Our Tooling significantly reduces the time needed to evaluate freelance agreements from both a civil‑law and tax perspective. Using the legal framework and the criteria established in the Deliveroo ruling as an objective benchmark, the Tooling identifies potential risk factors and flags areas for further review. Our Tooling combines an analysis of the written agreement with a review of the practical execution of the working relationship, and uses AI to check the relevant criteria, describe the context and produce a clear evaluation report.

The assessment examines factors such as the nature of the work, the degree of integration into the client’s organisation, working hours, the level and structure of compensation, indicators of entrepreneurial behaviour, and the commercial risk borne by the freelancer (including the height of the compensation). For each factor the outcome is positioned on a low‑to‑high risk continuum, enabling a rapid initial risk assessment of a current freelance relationship and highlighting issues that may require legal or fiscal advice.

In concrete terms, our Tooling supports several practical scenarios. First, it can assess whether a new worker can be engaged as a self employed contractor without material risk; if the case passes our risk assessment, the Tooling will immediately generate an appropriate agreement. Second, it can review existing cases: where risks are identified, the workflow includes a follow up discussion to determine how the situation or contract should be adjusted to mitigate those risks. Finally, the Tooling provides ongoing monitoring: it tracks developments in case law and legislation that may require changes to existing freelance cases, and it performs periodic rechecks to ensure that the factual situation and contract remain compliant. In short, our Tooling gives you control and oversight of your entire contractor (zzp) population.