International investors with corporate transactions in Germany are often surprised to learn that significant costs can be incurred by a German notary as part of a normal corporate transaction.  The involvement of a German notary is in many cases required by law, and the corresponding costs for such notary are set by the German federal statutory cost order (Gerichts- und Notarkostengesetz – GNotKG) with certain caps, however, amounting up to EUR 53,170.  A recent change in the German federal statutory cost order for notaries has increased these costs. In practice, structures can be modified to save notarial fees without any material deviations of the transaction documents.  For instance, international transaction documents are drafted often as bilingual documents. Under the changes in the new statutory cost order, the value of bilingual documents has increased by 30 percent.  It is worth considering if such translated documents should necessarily become a part...