The Dutch trade association, the VAN, has issued details of legal action it is taking against the country's Secretary of State for Finance.
The street market in the Netherlands last year had a 29 per cent tax imposed on cashboxes, which has brought the industry to its knees. Although the Minister of Justice, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, has subsequently mentioned ‘compensation’ under pressure from MPs in the Dutch Parliament, nothing has happened.
Now the VAN is going to the Rechtbank, the first court, with its case against the Secretary of State, Jan Kees de Jager, which is based on what the VAN’s advisers see as a tax flawed under basic Dutch law.
After that the case will go to the next level, the Gereditshof, and, if necessary, to the highest court, the Hoge Raad.
VAN chairman Annette Kok told InterGame: "The industry was hit with this tax completely out of the blue. It has devastated the business, stopped it overnight. Our door remains open to the government for talks, but we cannot wait forever, so we have started the legal action."
