An Accounting Court: The Impact of the Enterprise Chamber on Financial Reporting in the Netherlands.

ABSTRACT: "Accounting Courts" have been proposed, on several occasions, in the United States. A unique feature of the institutional framework of financial reporting in the Netherlands is the recent introduction of an Enterprise Chamber to settle disputes between companies and parties interested in their financial statements. This article describes the Chamber and evaluates its significance. An analysis of some recent verdicts of the Chamber leads me to conclude that there is a need for more formal accounting standards in the Netherlands. However, there is little demand for very strict standards or public regulation of financial reporting practices. Of particular interest is that the issues raised in the Dutch accounting court are among those most frequently debated at the present time in the United States.