{"id":928,"date":"2020-04-24T08:54:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T06:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/uncategorized\/digitale-aandeelhoudersvergadering-is-nu-mogelijk\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T10:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T09:33:46","slug":"digital-shareholders-meetings-are-now-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/digitale-aandeelhoudersvergadering-is-nu-mogelijk\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital shareholders\u2019 meetings are now possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Within a private limited company (BV), the shareholders\u2019 meeting (also known as the General Meeting) takes many important decisions (including the approval of the annual accounts). But what if the shareholders are not allowed to meet in person due to the coronavirus restrictions?<\/p>\n

In that case, let\u2019s just hold the meeting online!<\/h4>\n

There are now plenty of options for holding such a meeting online. But are the decisions taken in such a meeting legally valid?<\/p>\n

Given that we live in a digital society, the answer to this question may well come as a surprise: No!<\/strong> Under the Civil Code, shareholders have the right to attend the general meeting in person.<\/p>\n

The same applies, incidentally, to the General Meeting of Members of an association or owners\u2019 association.<\/p>\n

Temporary Act<\/h4>\n

To ensure that legally valid decisions could still be taken during the coronavirus crisis, the Ministry of Justice and Security has, in the Temporary Act on COVID-19: Justice and Security<\/a> a number of temporary measures have been adopted, including those relating to meetings within the private limited company.<\/p>\n

This Act is today<\/a> It has come into force, but applies retroactively in part to 16 March 2020. The scheduled expiry date of this temporary Act is 1 September 2020.<\/p>\n

General meeting held electronically<\/h4>\n

The board of the private limited company may decide that the general meeting is to be held electronically, even if this is not specified in the articles of association. However, this must be stated in the notice convening the meeting.<\/p>\n

If you have already sent out the notice of meeting, you may amend the format of the meeting up to 48 hours before the general meeting. This must be communicated to the shareholders in the notice of meeting; it may also be communicated by email if the shareholders agree.<\/p>\n

Conditions<\/h4>\n

If the board decides that shareholders are unable to attend a meeting and must vote electronically, a number of conditions must be met:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • You can follow the meeting on your computer, smartphone or tablet;<\/li>\n
  • Shareholders had the opportunity to ask questions about the items listed in the notice of meeting up to 72 hours before the meeting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    If the decision that the general meeting will be accessible only online is taken within five days of the general meeting taking place, shareholders must be given the opportunity to ask questions up to 36 hours before the meeting.<\/p>\n

    Questions from shareholders<\/h4>\n

    The questions raised by the shareholders will be answered no later than during the meeting. The answers will be published on the website or made available to all shareholders by other means.<\/p>\n

    The board is trying to ensure that questions can still be asked via email during or after the meeting, but in any case not in person.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Binnen een BV neemt de aandeelhoudersvergadering (ook wel aangeduid als de Algemene Vergadering) veel belangrijke besluiten (waaronder het vaststellen van de jaarrekening). Maar wat als de aandeelhouders door de coronaregels niet bij elkaar mogen komen om te vergaderen? Dan vergaderen we toch digitaal! Er zijn inmiddels mogelijkheden genoeg om een dergelijke vergadering digitaal te kunnen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}