AGCM

At its meeting of 30 May 2017, the Italian Competition Authority concluded its investigation into the Notary Council of Rome Velletri Civitavecchia and ASNODIM-Associazione Notariato Romano Dismissioni Immobiliari, by declaring that an agreement was put in place as infringement of Article 2 of Law no. 287/90. In particular, with Resolution no. 2287 of 29 May 2006, the Notary Council reserved itself the exclusive right to designate ex officio, through ASNODIM, the notaries to whom the drafting of deeds – including of mortgage - concerning the disposal of the property of public and social institutions should be entrusted. According to what emerged during the investigation, the aforementioned Resolution no. 2287/2006 has established a precise system for the choice of notaries for the disposal of public property, which precludes any possibility for district notaries to offer their services according to competitive dynamics and for tenants to compare offers and freely choose their notaries.
In implementation of the said Resolution, the Notary Council and ASNODIM have adopted a number of additional measures that limit the freedom of economic initiative of notaries as well as the freedom of tenants/buyers to choose their notaries, including monitoring of the deeds drafted by the notaries of the district, interventions against notaries who accept direct appointment from tenants, the conclusion of Memorandums of Understanding with the bodies being the owners of the property to be disposed of, with enclosed the Tariffs that the designated notaries would apply for the deeds required. With regard to Tariffs, the investigation has confirmed that no price containment initiative was implemented to pursue uniformity of tariffs; this in a regulatory context that in 2006 abrogated the compulsory fixed or minimum tariffs in order to prevent independent pricing of individual notaries could lead to reductions equal (or very near equal) to those permitted in principle by Law no. 410/2001.

Rome, 22 June 2017