Fetish in Boxtel, The Netherlands

Prostitution between adults is legal in the Netherlands, and sex businesses have been lawful since the brothel ban was lifted on 1 October 2000. There is no national licensing law: municipalities regulate through their local bylaw (APV), deciding whether and where clubs, windows, escort agencies and home-based work are allowed and licensing operators. Criminal law targets trafficking and exploitation (art. 273f Sr), sex with sellers under 18 and, since 2022, clients who know or should suspect a sex worker is trafficked (art. 273g Sr). In 2026 the government dropped the Wet regulering sekswerk, announced a statutory minimum age of 21 and tabled a bill on municipal supervision; a modernised trafficking law was enacted, and a bill obliging sex-ad platforms to verify advertisers' identity and age is before the Senate. Source: Prostitution Laws (prostitutionlaws.org), https://prostitutionlaws.org/countries/netherlands/, reviewed 2026-11-04, CC BY 4.0.