Client updates

An Extension Order was published in Israel on August 18, 2026 updating the rate of employers’ contributions to employees’ convalescence and vacation expenses for 2026. According to the Extension Order, an employer’s contribution to its employees’ convalescence and vacation expenses for 2026 will be ILS 451.50 per day of convalescence, instead of ILS 418 as had been in effect up until now.

On August 5, 2026, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) published a new draft directive issued under the Regulation of Investment Advice, Investment Marketing and Portfolio Management Law of 1995, which will supersede its 2011 directive and allow licensees to publicize past returns on portfolios for the first time. Public comments will be accepted until September 4, 2026.

On July 26, 2026, the Israeli Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority published a policy document for implementing a reform in the guarantee market, along with a draft update to the licensing procedure for regulated financial services and supplementary draft circulars. Public comments were accepted until August 16, 2026 and discussions of the comments will be held on September 7, 2026.

At the end of June 2026, in the Afikim Water case, Israel’s Supreme Court for the first time set out a clear test for calculating financial sanctions under the Consumer Protection Law. The CPFTA quickly adopted the ruling in a legal statement and temporary enforcement directive, changing how sanctions are calculated in practice. This unusual speed suggests the authority attributes considerable significance to the judgment.

Article 50 of the EU AI Act has applied since 2 August 2026 and imposes transparency obligations requiring organizations to make clear when individuals are interacting with AI or are being exposed to AI-generated or AI-manipulated content. It applies to providers and deployers of certain AI systems, including generative and interactive AI systems and deepfakes.

Amendment 74 to the Consumer Protection Law introduces, for the first time, obligations to record sales-related conversations, retain those recordings, and provide them to consumers upon request. The amendment applies to certain transactions listed in the law where the transaction value exceeds ILS 750, or where the price is unknown at the time of the call.

In recent weeks, the Israel Competition Authority has announced two new enforcement proceedings against Carasso Motors and Suny Communications, further reflecting its intensified enforcement efforts regarding parallel imports.

Israel’s Privacy Protection Authority (PPA) has published the final version of its position statement on the appointment of a data protection officer (DPO). Although, formally speaking, it is only a position statement rather than binding guidance, it is expected to have a significant practical impact on the PPA’s supervision and enforcement going forward.

The upcoming corporate credit database is expected to significantly affect Israel’s business credit market, expand credit data use, increase competition and access to credit, and require financial and other entities to prepare for reporting or relying on the database.

The reform expands options for importers, manufacturers, and marketers in Israel by lowering barriers and creating an additional route for products that meet the statutory conditions. However, it does not grant broad relief, since eligibility remains subject to conditions, exceptions, and documentation requirements, and compliance with applicable Israeli law must still be reviewed. Businesses should therefore prepare in advance to identify qualifying products, required documents, and points of interaction with existing Israeli regulation.

Publicly accessible personal data is not automatically available for AI training use: In Guidelines 03/2026, published for public comment on July 7, 2026, the EDPB clarifies that the mere fact that personal data is publicly accessible online does not, on its own, allow it to be collected and reused for AI training under the GDPR.

On June 29, 2026, the Ministry of Finance and the Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority published a draft bill for public comment until July 20, 2026, which, for the first time in Israel, would establish a specific licensing and supervisory framework for stablecoin issuers.

The Israeli Corporations Authority has announced that, in the coming period, it will begin a dedicated review concerning family ties and conflicts of interest in amutot and public benefit companies (PBCs).

An Israeli District Court imposed personal liability, jointly and severally, on the directors of a company for trademark infringement, without lifting the corporate veil. Whenever a tort is committed, including intellectual property infringement, any officer or director who personally committed the tort may be ordered to pay out of his or her own pocket, even without lifting the corporate veil.

For the first time, Israel’s Supreme Court has established a clear test for calculating financial sanctions under the Consumer Protection Law, depending on whether the conduct constitutes a single act or multiple separate acts.

In February 2026, the Haifa District Court’s Appeals Committee ruled that, under particular circumstances, real estate developers’ successful bids in Mehir LeMishtaken tenders and their entry into lease agreements with the Israel Land Authority do not constitute the “purchase of a right in real estate” subject to purchase tax.

On June 12, 2026, Anthropic announced that the US government had ordered it to immediately suspend foreign nationals’ access to its advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, pursuant to an export control directive issued on national security grounds.

Following progress on the Omnibus legislative package, the European Commission has published draft guidelines on the classification of high-risk AI systems. While not legally binding, the draft guidelines provide an early indication of how the Commission is likely to interpret and apply the AI Act’s risk-based framework in practice.

The District Court convicted most of the defendants in the IT cartel case, one of the most substantial criminal proceedings in Israel in recent years in the field of competition law. Alongside the convictions, the court acquitted our client Haim Shohat, and the company Matrix, of one of the charges, after determining that the prohibited understanding required for conviction for a cartel offense had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Installing a “robot” for algorithmic trading and defining its parameters is not deemed a “technological service” but may constitute investment portfolio management, which requires a license. This is because the service provider retains material discretion (choice of platform, transaction volume, profit and loss targets, and risk management), even when the account and funds are in clients’ names.