Has the Warsaw Chamber of Civil Law Notaries breached the antimonopoly law? The proceedings instituted by the President of UOKiK will clarify the case where the fact that representatives of the trade were banned from taking part in tenders was put into question

Under the Act on competition and consumer protection, agreements which have as their object or effect elimination, restriction or any other infringement of competition shall be prohibited. Resolutions and other actions undertaken by an association of undertakings, their statutory bodies, or professional associations, are regarded as this type of agreements as well.

The President of UOKiK has instituted the proceedings against the Warsaw Chamber of Civil Law Notaries. The entity obligatorily associates any notaries whose offices are located in the territory of Warsaw and neighbouring poviats.

The evidence collected by the Office, e.g. during the inspection with search at the premises of the Chamber, provided the basis for the pending proceedings. The preliminary examination shows that the Chamber could have restricted competition between notaries, which proves, among others, the fact that representatives of the Chamber of Civil Law Notaries in Warsaw sent mails to notaries associated with the Chamber, containing a ban on participating in tenders for providing services. Moreover, they informed notaries that disobeying the prohibition results in bearing a disciplinary liability. – By prohibiting notaries from taking part in a tender, the Warsaw Chamber of Civil Law Notaries could have limited the rivalvy between representatives of this trade. Consequently, ordering parties might have been deprived of selection of most favourable offer, i.e. the most reasonable way of spending public funds – says Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, the President of UOKiK.

For participation in a competition-restricting agreement, undertakings can be punished with a financial sancion of up to 10% of the revenue gained in the year preceding the decision.

It’s worth noting that in 2004, the Supreme Court decided that a notary is entitled to participation in public procurement. Thus, the court dismissed the resolution of the National Council of Notaries (pl. KRN), which had prohibited representatives of this profession from applying for public procurement.

UOKiK had previously fined the association of notaries. For example, in 2010, the President of the Office issued a decision concerning the National Council of Notaries, where the clause of the Notary Public Code of Professional Ethics was challenged. This clause allowed a notary to establish their office in the building, where there had already been operating another notary’s office, on condition the consent by the Council of the Notary Chamber was given. The decision is not final, KRN lodged an appeal to the court, which set the day of next hearing on 13 December 2013.

Additional information for the media:

Małgorzata Cieloch,  Spokesperson for UOKiK
Department of International Relations and Communication
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa
Tel.: +48 22 827 28 92, 55 60 314
Fax: +48 22 826 11 86
E-mail: [SCODE]bWFsZ29yemF0YS5jaWVsb2NoQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]