Court of Justice of the European Union Issues Decision on a Potential Breach of Sanctions

The Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) has issued a decision (C-109/23) on a reference for a preliminary ruling requested by a German court in relation to a potential breach of restrictive measures issued against Russia. The referring court requested the CJEU to provide a ruling on whether a German notary would have infringed the prohibition to provide legal advisory services to a legal person in Russia had he authenticated a contract for the sale of title to an apartment that was entered into between the Russian legal person as seller and a national of a Member State of the EU.

The scenario involved a notary who refused to authenticate a contract of sale for the sale of an apartment in Berlin which was owned by a Russian legal person. The notary in question argued that it could not be ruled out that such authentication infringed the prohibition to provide legal advisory services in terms of Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 of 31^st July 2014 (concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine).

The CJEU, having considered the question raised by the German court, noted that had such an authentication taken place it would not have fallen within the remit of the prohibition of providing legal advisory services. The CJEU added that whenever an authentication is carried out by a German notary, this activity is performed independently and impartially and is a public function which is entrusted to the notary by the state. It further noted that the activities associated with the authentication of a contract of sale of immovable property carried out by a German notary did not appear to involve the provision of legal advice.

An additional query was also made by the German court in relation to whether an interpreter, in accepting an assignment from that same notary to translate the content of the authentication proceedings for the benefit of the representative of the Russian legal person, would be in contravention of the prohibition on providing legal advisory services. The CJEU confirmed that when an interpreter acts in the context of a notarial authentication, that does not amount to the provision of legal advice and therefore the services of an interpreter are not covered by the prohibition of Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014.

This preliminary ruling provides some insight on the notion of “legal advisory services”. Although the European Commission issued several guidance documents on this Regulation, it has not specifically defined the term “legal advisory services”.