The Dutch government has responded to calls from institutional investors and corporates to allow for the holding of shareholder meetings in a wholly online environment.  A number of companies had announced that they would either seek to postpone annual general meetings or were investigating work-arounds with some form of physical meeting. The Cabinet has now approved a draft law which will allow legal entities temporarily to hold meetings and take decisions in a livestream environment even where the corporate governance rules require a physical meeting.  The details of the draft law have not yet been made available but the relevant ministers did specify that participants in the annual meeting would have to be given the opportunity to table questions in advance which would have to be addressed during the meeting.  The ministers also announced that the draft law would give management the flexibility to postpone the holding of the annual meeting and the deadlines within which annual accounts had to be prepared.

The emergency law will also for people to appear before a notary using audio visual tools. This will also facilitate share transfers, mergers and other transaction which require notarial deeds. The details of the legislation will only be available when the draft law is tabled in parliament. The provisions seem to be intended to be temporary. 

Dutch corporate life has been challenged in the past few weeks to fully adopt technological tools for doing business.  This legislation will allow companies to continue to operate, approve accounts and appoint new management in these difficult times. And who knows, this new way of doing things may transform shareholder meetings for the future making them more environmentally friendly and efficient.  As soon as the draft legislation is published we will provide an update.