Trend Report: New Developments On Dutch Loyalty Share Schemes

Over the past years, several listed Dutch companies implemented share loyalty schemes, incentivising long-term shareholdership by granting additional dividend or voting rights to long-term shareholders. In our September 2020 trend report, we covered an unprecedented judgment in which the implementation of a loyalty share scheme – as part of a merger – was successfully challenged. Recently, an expert group on the modernisation of Dutch company law published its advice (in Dutch) on the use of loyalty shares by Dutch companies.

In this trend report, we share our views as to how the expert group's advice may impact the use and development of loyalty share schemes under Dutch law.