As of July 1, 2025, an important amendment to the Penal Code will come into effect. The maximum penalty for participating in a terrorist organization aimed at committing the most serious terrorist crimes will be increased from 15 to 20 years. This tightening further strengthens the approach to serious terrorist threats.

At the same time, the rights of victims of crimes will be expanded. On the same date, the General Administrative Measure for the protection of victim data in court documents will come into effect as part of the Law on the Expansion of Victim Rights. This measure ensures that personal data of victims, such as residential addresses and phone numbers, will only be included in the criminal file if necessary for a judicial decision. This prevents suspects, convicts, or other participants in the proceedings from unnecessarily accessing sensitive information. The Public Prosecution Service and the Police are required to apply this protection starting July 1, 2025, when drafting reports and other court documents, contributing to stronger privacy protection and the legal position of victims in criminal proceedings.

Licensed online gambling providers will no longer be allowed to sponsor sports clubs or events in the Netherlands starting July 1. Sports shirts, advertising boards, or banners featuring the name or image of the gambling provider will thus become a thing of the past. This is the final part of the Decision on Unsolicited Advertising for Remote Gambling (Decision ORKA). The aim is to better protect vulnerable groups from the risks associated with gambling. This particularly applies to minors and young adults. Earlier, unsolicited advertising in public spaces, such as television, radio, and billboards, was already banned, as well as sponsorship of events such as festivals and radio and television programs. The ban on sports sponsorship is now coming into effect last because sports sponsorship often involves long-term contracts, allowing sports organizations time to find other sponsors. The Gambling Authority supervises online gambling providers and these bans. This supervision will be further tightened this summer.

As of July 1, 2025, the ban on designer drugs, also known as new psychoactive substances, will come into effect. Due to an amendment to the Opium Act, entire groups of these substances can be banned at once, instead of individually. This allows the government and law enforcement agencies to act more quickly against the production, trade, and possession of these dangerous substances, which often have effects similar to already banned drugs like ecstasy or amphetamine. The goal is to combat undermining crime and protect public health, particularly for young people who use these substances under the misconception that they are legal and therefore safe.

The law on data processing for the individualized approach to radicalization and terrorist activities requires mayors to organize case discussions about (suspected) radicalized individuals starting July 1 and provides a clear legal basis for data exchange between involved organizations. This codifies existing practice, makes it GDPR-compliant, and provides additional safeguards for careful data processing.

The initiative law from Members of Parliament Timmermans and Bikker will come into effect on July 1, 2025, and introduces the discriminatory aspect as a legal general ground for increased sentences. This means that when a criminal offense is committed with a discriminatory motive, the maximum penalty can be increased by one third. Additionally, the law modernizes the terminology in discrimination legislation by replacing hetero- or homosexual orientation with sexual orientation and physical, psychological, or intellectual disability with disability. This strengthens protection against discrimination and better aligns it with current social and legal norms.

Starting July 1, 2025, child support debts will be given preferential status. This means that child support debts will take precedence over other competing debts, such as debts to online stores or phone providers. The aim is for children to receive more and earlier child support when the person obliged to pay has debts to multiple creditors. If there are multiple creditors, the money to pay the debts will first go to the preferential debts. What remains will be distributed among the other creditors (the competing creditors). Research by the National Bureau for Collection of Maintenance Contributions (LBIO) has shown that granting preference to owed child support will lead to more and faster collectible child support, and thus to more available financial resources for the care and upbringing of children.

As of July 1, the law abolishing pledge bans will come into effect. Medium-sized and small businesses often have outstanding claims against debtors, such as unpaid invoices. These claims cannot currently be used as collateral for loans because their debtors, often large companies, do not allow it. The law abolishing pledge bans will amend Book 3 of the Civil Code so that these business claims can be used as collateral for financing. This increases the credit capacity for small and medium-sized enterprises and thus their room for investment. Debtors must be informed in writing of the transfer or pledge of the claim to another party under the new law. This ensures that they are always aware when their debt must be paid to someone else. New agreements that exclude the transferability of claims will be null and void starting July 1. Existing agreements will have a transition period, and those agreements will be null and void after three months, thus on October 1, 2025.

Policy rules outline how an application for a Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG) is assessed. As of July 1, 2025, these rules will be adjusted due to the so-called end-of-case declaration. This is a new final ruling from the judge indicating that the criminal case has been closed. Since October 1, 2022, it has been possible to use mediation – mediation between the suspect and the victim under the guidance of a mediator, with the aim of reaching a solution – after the start of the investigation at the hearing. If the mediation is successful, the judge may decide to terminate the criminal case. This then occurs via an end-of-case declaration. No conviction will take place. The new policy rules specify how such an end-of-case declaration will be weighed in assessing a VOG application.