Despite a change in law that made prostitution legal in the Netherlands on a national level, many town councils have acted in ways that point into the opposite direction, making prostitution illegal. Under the law that legalized prostitution in the Netherlands, a legal brothel needs to have a license that should be obtained from the local government, i.e. the town council. In theory, this could work out fine, but local governments rarely ever give licenses to sex workers who choose to play by the rules. Many cities have policies in place in which only existing brothels can have their licenses renewed, after a complicated procedure ('wet BIBOB') in which the owners of the brothels have to prove that their management has always paid their taxes correctly and has never committed any crime whatsoever.