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In force · 1 July 2026

NL Telecomwet: whether you may call, and what you must be able to show.

In force since 1 July 2026

Last reviewed: 5 October 2026

The Dutch Telecommunicatiewet governs unsolicited communication, and its current outbound-calling regime has applied since 1 July 2026. Two things follow from it for anyone dialling into the Netherlands: you need a basis to call at all, and you must be able to demonstrate it rather than assert it. The duty to say that the caller is an AI is a separate one: it comes from Article 50 of the AI Act, not from the Telecomwet.

What the law requires

An automated calling or communication system used without human intervention may only carry unsolicited commercial communication where the subscriber has given prior consent; the sender must be able to demonstrate that consent. On every call the caller must identify itself and offer the recipient the opportunity to object to further use of their contact details.
Telecommunicatiewet, art. 11.7
Telling a person they are speaking to an AI system is a duty under the AI Act, and applies on top of the Dutch rules.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Art. 50(1)

What Audact does about it

An eligibility check before the line opens: the number is tested against the consent state, the opt-out list and the contact rules you configured, and a call that fails is not placed.
In controlled testing
The receipt records the disclosure step: its wording hash, the jurisdiction and its position in the call.
In controlled testing · Germany: national policy layer active. Netherlands: in development. Belgium and Austria: planned.
The Dutch policy pack, with the national layer on top of Article 50.
Germany: national policy layer active. Netherlands: in development. Belgium and Austria: planned.
A Dutch-language disclosure line reviewed by counsel before a rollout.
In development

Two rules, one call

The Telecomwet decides whether you may call. Article 50 decides what you say once you are through.

It is worth keeping these apart, because they fail in different ways and are enforced by different authorities. A call placed without a basis breaches the Telecomwet even if the agent announces itself perfectly. A call placed with impeccable consent still breaches Article 50 if the person is never told they are speaking to a machine.

Supervision of the unsolicited-communication rules sits with the Autoriteit Consument & Markt. The processing of the personal data behind the call (the numbers, the consent record, the recording) is governed by the GDPR and supervised by the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. Two supervisors, one call.

Demonstrable

The word that does the work is “demonstrable”.

Under the GDPR the controller must be able to demonstrate that consent was given; a claim that it exists is not the same thing as a record that shows it. Applied to outbound calling, that means the interesting question is never whether your list is clean, but whether you can show, for one specific number on one specific day, what you relied on.

That is a question about records rather than about intentions, and it is answerable before the complaint arrives or not at all. Audact writes the consent state it relied on into the receipt for that call, at the moment the call is placed.

Note

Information, not legal advice.

This page sets out the rules as we read them, with the article numbers so you can check us. It is not legal advice, and your own position depends on facts this page cannot know. Take advice from qualified counsel before you rely on it.

Questions

Does the Telecomwet require me to say the caller is an AI?
No. That duty comes from Article 50(1) of the AI Act, which has applied since 2 August 2026 and covers any AI system interacting with a person in the Union. The Telecomwet governs unsolicited communication: whether you may make the call in the first place, and the identification and objection duties that come with it.
We call from Germany into the Netherlands. Which rules apply?
The Dutch rules follow the recipient, not the dialler. If the person you call is in the Netherlands, the Telecommunicatiewet regime applies to that call, and Article 50 of the AI Act applies regardless of where either party sits.
What does a supervisor actually ask for?
For a specific number on a specific date: what you relied on to call it, and a hash of the output the gate released. Both are answerable from the receipt for that call rather than reconstructed from a CRM afterwards.

The check that happens before the line opens

Eligibility is decided before the call is placed, not reviewed after it. See how the outbound engine tests a number against consent, opt-out and contact rules.

See the outbound eligibility API

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