The court is mainly tasked with answering requests for preliminary rulings from the supreme courts regarding regulations which are common to the three countries and serves as a civil service tribunal for personnel of the Benelux Economic Union and the Benelux Organization for Intellectual Property (BOIP), although it may also be tasked with advising the three governments, and with direct judicial tasks following the entry into force in 2016 of a 2012 protocol to the treaty.
Since December 2016, the activities are organized in three chambers: The court furthermore has three advocates general, that give advisory opinions in certain cases.
The competence needs to be explicitly designated in a multilateral treaty, a decision or recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Benelux Union.
[6] The European Court of Justice decided so in a 1995 case (C‑337/95, Parfums Christian Dior).
The Supreme Court of the Netherlands in turn gave its ruling, based on those answers on 27 January 2006.