Recital 18

(18) Legal professionals, as defined by the Member States, should be subject to this Directive, including the obligation to report the violation of Union restrictive measures, when providing services in the context of professional activities, such as legal, financial and trade services. There is a clear risk of the services of those legal professionals being misused for the purpose of violating Union restrictive measures. There should, however, be exemptions from any obligation to report information that they receive from, or obtain on, one of their clients, in the course of ascertaining their legal position or performing the task of defending or representing that client in, or concerning, judicial proceedings, including providing advice on instituting or avoiding such proceedings. Therefore, such legal advice should remain subject to the obligation of professional secrecy, except where the legal professional is intentionally taking part in the violation of Union restrictive measures, where the legal advice is provided for the purposes of violating Union restrictive measures, or where the legal professional knows that the client is seeking legal advice for the purposes of violating Union restrictive measures.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-12 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.