Platinum, gold, silver and palladium.

Correction of legal defects and gaps as well as implementation of other minor amendments to various legal provisions within the domain of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (Collective Act 2020 of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy)

This concerns Article X of the Collective Act 2020

In the Netherlands, objects made of gold, silver or platinum must bear a hallmark issued by a designated assay office that guarantees the fineness of the precious metal in question. This enables consumers to trust that an object is actually made from a particular precious metal and that this precious metal has a particular fineness.The assay requirement and the rules for assaying and assay bodies (the designated assay offices) are contained in the Assay Act 2019 [Waarborgwet 2019] (previously notified under Notification No 2018/495/NL) and the Hallmarking Order 2019 [Waarborgregeling 2019] (previously notified under Notification No 2019/422/NL).

Articles 16 and 17 of the Assay Act 2019 lay down specific rules on composite objects. These are objects containing proportions of different precious metals or proportions of precious metals and proportions of one or more other substances. To protect consumers, such objects are only assayed if the object meets a number of minimum requirements set by ministerial order. In accordance with the objective of the Assay Act 2019 (guaranteeing fair trade in precious metals and the protection of consumers against fraud), the intention is, of course, that only objects assayed in accordance with these minimum requirements can be sold as precious metal objects. Articles 31 and 33 of the Assay Act 2019, which guarantee that only objects that at least meet the requirements of the Assay Act 2019 are sold as precious metal objects, erroneously do not state that this also applies to the requirements laid down in the Hallmarking Order 2019. This inadvertently results in a loophole for certain composite objects that do at least comply with the minimum legal fineness for the relevant precious metal with regard to a portion of the object but do not meet the other requirements set by ministerial order. This draft Act clarifies in these provisions that composite objects that have not been assayed in accordance with the

requirements set by the Hallmarking Order 2019 are not to be placed on the market as precious metal objects or be brought to the attention of the public as precious metal objects.