On 11 August 2026, the Ams­ter­dam Dis­trict Court con­ver­ted the sus­pen­sion of pay­ments of Accell Group Hold­ing B.V. and its Dutch sub­si­di­ar­ies (“Accell“) into a bank­ruptcy. Two bank­ruptcy trust­ees were appoin­ted in this con­nec­tion. This Q&A provides busi­ness rela­tions of Accell, such as sup­pli­ers, cus­tom­ers, deal­ers and fin­an­ci­ers, with a prac­tic­al over­view of the con­sequences of the bank­ruptcy order. Accell’s group includes well-known brands such as Batavus, Sparta, Koga and Bab­boe.

HVG Law and its law­yers are not involved as bank­ruptcy trust­ees in this bank­ruptcy. This pub­lic­a­tion con­sti­tutes gen­er­al inform­a­tion and does not con­sti­tute advice on your spe­cif­ic situ­ation. Please con­tact us for advice on your own pos­i­tion.

 

1. What exactly is a bank­ruptcy?

Bank­ruptcy is an insolv­ency pro­ceed­ing declared by the court under which the debt­or loses the man­age­ment and dis­pos­al of its assets. In most cases, its pur­pose is to liquid­ate the assets for the bene­fit of the joint cred­it­ors. In prin­ciple, the busi­ness ceases its nor­mal oper­a­tions, unless the trust­ees decide to tem­por­ar­ily con­tin­ue the activ­it­ies in the interest of the estate.

 

2. How does the pro­ced­ure work?

The court declares the bank­ruptcy and appoints one or more trust­ees and a super­vis­ory judge. The trust­ees imme­di­ately take over the man­age­ment and dis­pos­al of Accell’s assets. Unlike a sus­pen­sion of pay­ments, there is no pro­vi­sion­al phase: the bank­ruptcy takes effect imme­di­ately. The pro­ced­ure gen­er­ally ends through liquid­a­tion of the estate, a com­pos­i­tion (akkoord) with cred­it­ors, or in the case of an empty estate- clos­ure for lack of assets.

 

3. What do the trust­ees do, and what does this mean for con­tracts with Accell?

As of the date of bank­ruptcy, Accell no longer has con­trol over its assets and activ­it­ies: the trust­ees exer­cise the man­age­ment and dis­pos­al there­of. Orders, pay­ments, new con­tracts and oth­er busi­ness decisions are made exclus­ively by the trust­ees. Acts per­formed by Accell after the bank­ruptcy order without the trust­ees’ cooper­a­tion are, in prin­ciple, not val­id against the estate.

 

4. What hap­pens to exist­ing agree­ments that have not yet been (fully) per­formed, for example a pending pur­chase order or a sup­ply con­tract?

The coun­ter­party may give the trust­ees writ­ten notice, set­ting a reas­on­able peri­od, request­ing them to state wheth­er they wish to per­form under the agree­ment. If a timely response is not giv­en, or if the trust­ees indic­ate that they will not per­form under the agree­ment, the trust­ees’ right to demand per­form­ance lapses. The coun­ter­party then retains a claim that can be filed as an unse­cured (ordin­ary) claim in the bank­ruptcy. If the trust­ees do choose to per­form the agree­ment, that per­form­ance con­sti­tutes an estate debt (boedelschuld). In that case, the coun­ter­party may also request secur­ity.

 

5. Con­crete example: a deal­er or retail­er has ordered bicycles or parts from an Accell group com­pany, but these have not yet been delivered. What hap­pens to this order?

If the con­tract­ing com­pany is bank­rupt, the deal­er or retail­er may give the trust­ees a reas­on­able peri­od to con­firm wheth­er the order will still be delivered. If the trust­ees con­firm that the order will still be delivered, that deliv­ery oblig­a­tion con­sti­tutes an estate debt. If con­firm­a­tion is not giv­en, or if the trust­ees indic­ate that they will not per­form under the agree­ment, the trust­ees’ right to demand per­form­ance lapses. The coun­ter­party is then left with a claim for dam­ages or repay­ment, which ranks as an unse­cured (ordin­ary) claim in the bank­ruptcy.

 

6. Can Accell still be forced to pay out­stand­ing invoices from before the bank­ruptcy dur­ing the bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings?

No. Debts arising before the date of bank­ruptcy can­not be enforced against Accell out­side the bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings. All indi­vidu­al enforce­ment meas­ures and attach­ments are sus­pen­ded and can no longer be pur­sued. Cred­it­ors must file their claims with the trust­ees. An excep­tion applies to cred­it­ors hold­ing a stat­utory secur­ity right, such as a right of pledge or mort­gage: they may, in prin­ciple, still enforce their rights against the assets sub­ject to their secur­ity, although this right may also be tem­por­ar­ily blocked by a cool­ing-off peri­od (afkoel­ing­speri­ode).

 

7. What is a cool­ing-off peri­od, and what does it mean for cred­it­ors, includ­ing fin­an­ci­ers hold­ing secur­ity?

The super­vis­ory judge may impose a cool­ing-off peri­od of up to two months, which may be exten­ded once by a fur­ther peri­od of up to two months (which is the case in Accell’s bank­ruptcy). Dur­ing this peri­od, third parties may not repos­sess their goods or exer­cise their rights of recourse without the super­vis­ory judge’s per­mis­sion. This par­tic­u­larly affects fin­an­ci­ers and sup­pli­ers hold­ing a right of pledge or a reten­tion of title.

 

8. What does the bank­ruptcy mean for pending leg­al pro­ceed­ings against or brought by Accell?

Pro­ceed­ings pending on the date of bank­ruptcy that relate to rights and oblig­a­tions fall­ing with­in the estate are, in prin­ciple, sus­pen­ded. The trust­ees take over Accell’s pos­i­tion and decide wheth­er to con­tin­ue the pro­ceed­ings. New claims against the estate must be filed with the trust­ees and are addressed in the veri­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ure, unless they con­cern estate debts.

 

9. What hap­pens to the employ­ment con­tracts of Accell’s employ­ees?

The trust­ees may ter­min­ate employ­ment con­tracts sub­ject to a notice peri­od of a max­im­um of six weeks, pur­su­ant to Sec­tion 40 of the Dutch Bank­ruptcy Act (Fail­lisse­ment­swet). Wages and related con­tri­bu­tions accru­ing from the date of bank­ruptcy con­sti­tute estate debts and are paid with pri­or­ity from the estate. In addi­tion, as a res­ult of the bank­ruptcy, the wage guar­an­tee scheme of the Employ­ee Insur­ance Agency (UWV) takes effect, mean­ing that the UWV will pay the wages and con­tri­bu­tions (includ­ing any arrears); the UWV sub­sequently files the amounts it has paid as a claim with the trust­ees.

 

10. What is the dif­fer­ence between an estate debt and an unse­cured (ordin­ary) claim, and why does this dis­tinc­tion mat­ter?

Estate debts are cer­tain debts that arise dur­ing the bank­ruptcy (for example, new orders placed by the trust­ees, costs of admin­is­ter­ing the estate, ongo­ing rent and wages). They are paid with pri­or­ity before any oth­er cred­it­ors receive any­thing. Unse­cured (ordin­ary) claims are ordin­ary claims that arose before the date of bank­ruptcy. These cred­it­ors may file their claims with the trust­ees, must await the veri­fic­a­tion meet­ing, and receive a pro rata dis­tri­bu­tion from the remain­ing estate assets — which, in prac­tice, is often little or noth­ing.

 

11. What is a restart, and what con­sequences does it have for busi­ness rela­tions?

In a restart, a third party pur­chases the busi­ness, or part of it, from the bank­ruptcy estate. The trust­ees select the party tak­ing over the busi­ness (the “restarter”) and trans­fer the assets (such as invent­ory, machinery, brands and per­son­nel) to the new own­er. A restart offers the pos­sib­il­ity that Accell’s well-known brands will be con­tin­ued under new own­er­ship. It is cru­cial for busi­ness rela­tions to under­stand that a restart does not mean that exist­ing con­tracts are auto­mat­ic­ally trans­ferred. The restarter is a leg­al entity dis­tinct from the bank­rupt com­pany and is, in prin­ciple, free to choose which sup­pli­ers, cus­tom­ers or deal­ers it con­tin­ues to work with. Any out­stand­ing claim against the bank­rupt com­pany like­wise does not trans­fer to the restarter.

 

Does your organ­isa­tion play a role in rela­tion to Accell, as a sup­pli­er, cus­tom­er, fin­an­ci­er or party inter­ested in a restart, and would you like to know what this means for you? Please feel free to reach out to Robin de Wit, Karel Lohmeier or Niels Elferink.

This Q&A is inten­ded solely as gen­er­al inform­a­tion. No rights may be derived from this pub­lic­a­tion.