OREANDA-NEWS. April 04, 2012. The “third antimonopoly law”, which came into force on 6th January 2012, introduced amendments to the concept of an “economic entity” by expanding the norms of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” to actions of notaries and notary offices, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Earlier the antimonopoly authority initiated a case on violating the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” against the “Notary Office of the Krasnodar Region” Non-Commercial Organization and notaries of the Krasnodar region upon a petition of a resident of the Krasnodar region.

On 13th May 2011, at an annual member meeting (of the notaries of the Krasnodar region) the Notary Office of the Krasnodar Region approved the “Changes to the Recommendations on the Size of the Fee for Legal and Technical Services Provided by Notaries of the Krasnodar Region through Notarial Acts”.

These changes increased the costs of legal and technical works on most types of по notarial acts provided by notaries in the Krasnodar region.

Investigating the case, the FAS Commissions decided to terminate it because when the Changes had been approved (on 13th May 2011) notaries were not covered by the concept of an “economic entity” (Clause 5 Article 4 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”) and, accordingly, the provisions of the antimonopoly law had not reached notaries.

“Now agreements between notaries on fixing the same fee for legal and technical services are prohibited and will be classified as a cartel”, said the Head of FAS Cartel Department, Alexander Kinyov.