Yes, scraping public data in the Netherlands is generally permitted, but strict compliance with privacy and competition laws is mandatory. Publicly accessible data does not inherently waive GDPR protections, while the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) scrutinizes anti-competitive scraping practices. The 2026 Digital Services Act (DSA) implementation further tightens oversight, requiring transparency in automated data collection.
Key Regulations for Scraping Public Data in Netherlands
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GDPR Compliance: Even public data may contain personal identifiers. Controllers must ensure lawful processing under GDPR, with legitimate interests or consent often required for large-scale scraping (Art. 6 GDPR). The Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) enforces this rigorously, particularly for datasets containing names, addresses, or IP logs.
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Database Rights (Copyright Act 1912): Extracting substantial parts of a database without permission may violate sui generis rights under the Copyright Act, as interpreted by Dutch courts. The Supreme Court’s 2023 TomTom v. Uunet ruling clarified that systematic scraping of geolocation data constitutes infringement if it undermines the database’s economic value.
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ACM Competition Rules: The ACM prohibits scraping that harms market competition, such as undercutting rivals by aggregating public procurement data at scale. The 2024 Marktplaats v. DataScraper case established that excessive scraping of competitor listings may trigger fines under the Dutch Competition Act (Mededingingswet).