CAcert Organisation Assurance Program sub-policy for the EU country the Netherlands

CAcert Policy Status
Author: Teus Hagen
Creation date: 2008-05-01
Status: WiP 2008-05-01
Next status: DRAFT 2008

0. Preliminaries

This CAcert sub-policy extends the Organisation Assurance Policy ("OAP") by specifying how the CAcert Organisation Assurance Program ("COAP") is to be conducted by the assigned Organisation Assurer ("OA") under the supervision of the Assurance Officer ("AO") for entities within the defined scope.

A Legal Entity (legal body) is an organisation which has registered articles (bye-laws or rules) registered at the national Trade and Registration Office ("TRO"). The bye-laws are supervised by a national registered notary.

An organisation (entity) may have a registration with a TRO and no bye-laws registered with the TRO. Liability is carried by an individual. In this sub-policy this is considered as Legal Entity as well.

1. Scope

This sub-policy is applicable to Legal Entities accepted and registered by the TRO:

  1. national legal entities,
  2. European legal entities,
  3. foreign legal entities.

2. Requirements

This section describes any scope specific requirements that are not otherwise defined in the OAP.

2.1 Organisation

  1. For Applicants with individual liability operating under their own name business name registration is OPTIONAL.
  2. Applicants MUST be a valid legal entity but MAY have an arbitrary number of registered trading names.

2.2 Records

  1. Digital Signatures MAY be accepted in the EU (Europe) under the EU European Directive 99/93/EG and 2000/31/EC.
    Implemented in the Netherlands as Wet Elektronische Handtekeningen (WET) of 21st of May 2003 .
    Comment: The legal requirement is that there is sufficient evidense and trust. This is the case for a digital certificate that can be checked.
  2. Historic documents MAY be accepted where it can be proven that material changes have not been made (eg via absence of subsequent submissions in official document listings).

2.3 Application Form

  1. The licensing authority MUST be specified as 'Kamer van Koophandel, the Netherlands' where applicable .
  2. Company Number or Business Name Number MUST be specified where applicable .

3. Registration

3.1 Registries

  1. Kamer van Koophandel ("KvK") [http://www.kvk.nl]
    1. Company Search [advanced search].
  2. Stichting Internet Domain Registratie ("SIDN") [http://www.sidn.nl]
    1. .nl WHOIS [search for domain information] .

3.2 Identifiers

  1. Business Name Number is a unique identifying number assigned by the TRO when an entity registers a business name.
  2. Company Number is a unique identifying number assigned by the TRO a body becomes registered as a company.
  3. Business Name Numbers and Company Numbers are NOT interchangeable so type must always be specified.

3.3 Documents

  1. the TRO Printout
  2. the TRO Business Name Printout

4. Processes

4.1 Assurance

  1. Each person listed in an application MUST be individually assured and referenced by a confirmed email.
  2. Sole traders and partnerships operating under their own name(s) MAY be automatically approved without further checks.
  3. All other trading names (including companies) MUST be verified by a TRO Company or Business Name Search, where the status MUST be 'Normal'.
  4. Partnership applicants MUST additionally be verified via a Business Name Printout as a current individual member and SHOULD be a managing partner.
  5. Company applications MUST be made by an individual who is duly authorised to sign on behalf of the company:
    1. Officeholder applicants (directors or preferably secretary) MUST be verified in a "Company Printout" (obtained from the TRO by the OA where fees are reclaimable from the applicant).
    2. Any other applicant MUST prove that they are duly authorised to sign on behalf of the entity (for example via delegation and/or under company rules) to the satisfaction of the OA, for approval by the OAO.

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