The Dutch Central Bank (DNB) must reimburse Dutch crypto service providers. This follows from a ruling by the preliminary relief judge on Thursday.
The crypto sector and DNB have been at loggerheads for years about the costs of supervising the sector. These are passed on by DNB to the companies that have the mandatory registration with DNB.
These costs have been significant in recent years, causing many crypto entrepreneurs to choose to cease their activities or continue their business abroad. At the same time, they competed with foreign companies that ignored the registration requirement, but were active in the Netherlands.
A number of companies have been litigating against the costs for years. In the lawsuit relating to the 2021 levy, the court in Rotterdam ruled on October 4 that they are right. The verdict means that in practice DNB implements a licensing requirement for crypto companies, while under the law only registration is required. And that it is not fair that companies pay for this.
DNB appealed against this and asked the preliminary relief judge to suspend the repayment obligation pending that appeal. He doesn’t go along with that. DNB has previously indicated that it will refund the levies in that case. This amounts to approximately 1.6 million euros for 2021. The amounts per company vary from more than 4 thousand to more than 400 thousand euros.
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