Knowledge
What is the Dutch business register?
Every Dutch company lives in one public book: the Handelsregister. Kept by the Kamer van Koophandel, this business register records who a company is, who owns it and who may sign for it — and anyone can look inside.
Updated 22 August 2026
The short answer
The Dutch business register is the Handelsregister, the official trade register maintained by the Kamer van Koophandel (KvK), the Dutch Chamber of Commerce. Every business operating in the Netherlands — from a one-person zzp practice to a listed corporation — is recorded in it with its legal name, KvK number, legal form, registered address, directors and signing authority. The register is public: anyone can search it and order an extract (uittreksel) for a few euro, which makes it the standard first stop for verifying a Dutch company.
What the register shows
A registration lists the facts that matter in a transaction: the exact legal name and trade names, the KvK number, the legal form (eenmanszaak, BV, stichting and so on), the registered and visiting address, the date of establishment, the directors and — crucially — who is authorised to sign and to what limit. For a BV, the register also points to the shareholder structure via the UBO framework. It is the corporate identity card of the Netherlands, kept current by law.
How Dutch business uses it
Verification through the register is a daily reflex here: a supplier pulls your extract before granting credit terms, a landlord before signing a lease, a bank before opening an account, a customer before a large order. International partners can search the register online and order English-language extracts, which makes a clean, current registration a quiet asset in cross-border deals. The register is also where insolvencies and dissolutions surface first.
The register and your website
Your website and your registration work as a pair: the KvK number on your site lets any visitor jump to your registry entry, and consistent details across both — name, address, legal form — compound the trust. Search engines and AI systems read the same signals when they decide which company to cite. A company whose public records and public website tell one identical story is simply easier to believe, for humans and machines alike.
Frequently asked questions
How do I search the Dutch business register?
Through the online search of the Kamer van Koophandel at kvk.nl, by company name, trade name or KvK number. Basic details appear free of charge; full extracts and English versions are available for a small fee.
Is the Dutch business register public?
Yes — public access is the point of the register. Certain personal details of sole proprietors are shielded from bulk viewing for privacy, and residential addresses of directors are increasingly protected, while the business facts remain open to all.
Which companies appear in the register?
Every enterprise carrying on business in the Netherlands: sole proprietors, partnerships, BVs and NVs, associations and foundations with an enterprise, and Dutch branches of foreign companies. Registration happens at the start of trading and stays current for the life of the business.
Partner — Holdwise
Planning to enter the Dutch market? Our partner Holdwise handles the incorporation of a Dutch private limited company (BV) fully remotely: notary, registration in the business register of the Chamber of Commerce (KvK), value added tax (VAT) number and a business address — in writing, structured and at a fixed fee.
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