New rules for notices of revocation of powers of attorney in Russia

On 29 December 2021, a law* will come into force that sets out new rules for the notification of revocation of powers of attorney issued in writing without being notarised.

From then on, the person who issued the power of attorney will be entitled to post information about the cancellation of the power of attorney in the register of power of attorney revocation orders. Third parties will be deemed notified of the revocation from the day following the publication date, unless they were notified earlier.

The new procedure will make it easier to revoke a power of attorney and notify third parties. Previously, persons revoking a power of attorney had three options:

• revoke a power of attorney through a notary who posts the relevant notice in the register of notarial acts;
• place information about the revocation in the Kommersant newspaper; or
• independently notify third parties known to them, at the risk that some third parties may not be notified.

In the first case, third parties are also deemed notified the day after the entry in the register. In the second case (when the revocation is published in Kommersant), notification only takes effect one month from the publication date.

In addition to the above options, the new rules allow for the submission of information on revoking a power of attorney in simple written form independently via a personal account on the Federal Notary Chamber’s website*. To do so, it will be sufficient to fill in a special form in one’s personal account and sign it with a qualified electronic signature. The new method offers greater protection to persons revoking a power of attorney by virtue of the short notice period for all third parties.

The introduction of the new register should be a useful tool both for companies actively issuing powers of attorney to their representatives and for any market participants checking the powers of a counterparty’s representative. The former will have a relatively simple way of notifying third parties of the revocation of a power of attorney, while the latter will have an additional means of verifying the authority of their counterparties’ representatives before concluding a contract.

For further information, please email the authors or your usual contact at CMS Russia.

* In Russian