Het Nederlands Muntkantoor stops sending out unsolicited mailings

Under pressure from the Consumer Authority and the Consumers Association, Het Nederlands Muntkantoor has stated that it will stop sending unsolicited coin sets to Dutch households. Het Nederlands Muntkantoor will explicitly ask consumers who have completed and returned the euro questionnaire for their consent before sending the coin sets. This has put a stop to the imminent unsolicited sending of coin sets to thousands of households. The original mailing that was sent to some four million Dutch households did not state clearly that by participating in the questionnaire the respondent was tied to receiving subsequent sets each month costing tens of euros.

The Advertising Code Committee has now ruled that the large-scale mailing in the form of a euro questionnaire was misleading. Het Nederlands Muntkantoor may still lodge an appeal against this ruling. The Consumer Authority will continue to monitor critically the activities of Het Nederlands Muntkantoor. Depending on the stance adopted by Het Nederlands Muntkantoor it will assess whether additional action is needed to prevent Het Nederlands Muntkantoor sending such mailings again in the future.

More information for consumers on this can be found on ConsuWijzer, the information desk of the Consumer Authority. Consumers who receive an unsolicited coin set after all may also report this to ConsuWijzer.