The European Court of Justice (ECJ), upon referral from the Berlin Regional Court, provided an interpretation of Article 5n(2) of Council Regulation (EU) No. 833/2014 of 31 July 2014. This Article provides for the prohibition of providing "legal advisory services" to the Government of Russia or legal persons, entities, or bodies established in Russia.

The ECJ addressed the scope of this Article in the context of the services of notaries in authenticating contracts for the sale of immovable property where the seller is a Russian legal person, as well as the execution of such contracts and the provision of translation services during this process.

The ECJ defined "legal advisory services" under Article 5n (2) as "the pursuit of an activity of an economic nature, based on a relationship between a service provider and his or her client, the purpose of which is the provision of legal advice, and by which a provider delivers advice on questions of law to persons seeking that advice." The ECJ concluded that the act of authentication in the specific case, along with other tasks related to the execution of the authentication process, and the provision of translation services to assist representatives of Russian legal persons who do not command the language of the authentication procedure, do not fall within the scope of the prohibition under Article 5n(2).

As of July 2024, the EU introduced the Voluntary Disclosure concept (similar to the U.S.) into its sanctions program regarding Russia and Belarus. This means that when you discover a [potential] violation of EU sanctions by your company, you can voluntarily disclose this to the competent authority of the relevant Member State, who will take this Voluntary Disclose into account when deciding on prosecution steps. Please be aware that you should have a sanctions program in place that makes sure relevant data has been collected and documented, so you can show in your disclosure that you never intended to violate the sanctions.