Client updates

A new ruling may affect due diligence employment findings and reclassify high-tech companies as companies operating in the industrial sector.

Bank of Israel published a position paper with respect to the activity of banks’ payment apps in the B2C market. The position paper is the conclusion of a long battle waged by credit card companies against the banks.

Regional Court ruled that a woman who earned less than a man in the same position is entitled to compensation from her employer for discrimination.

The Supreme Court recently heard a case on the cancellation of expropriation and ruled that public interest prevails over the damage caused to landowners.

July 2019 brought an escalation in the enforcement of privacy infringements by companies around the world. These events underscore the trend that began with the GDPR taking effect and should lead any business entity coming across personal information.

After a long wait, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has permitted a startup company to raise funds from the general public through a supervised security token offering (STO) under Reg A+ regulations. Effectively, this is the first time a public STO was granted regulatory approval in the United States.

The Israel Securities Authority recently published a draft bill for the Regulation of Investment Advice, Investment Marketing and Investment Portfolio Management Law. The purpose of the bill is to regulate the area of  of general investment advice services and to allow those services without the need for an advice license, while still meeting some requirements.

A precedential judgment was handed down on option plans for employees in respect of section 102 of the Income Tax Ordinance. The court ruled that when a tax assessor is notified of the allocation of options in accordance with section 102 and fails to respond within 90 days, the plan is approved and the assessor cannot later claim that this is not so, except in very exceptional cases.

The Israel Securities Authority (ISA) recently published a proposal for amending the Securities Law as to the supervision of underwriters and distributors.

A judgment by the Supreme Court recently established the scope of instructions the Land Supervisor is authorized to issue in regard to the common property of a condominium defined as a “complex building.”

The Tel Aviv District Committee for Planning and Construction recently gave final approval for the Tel Aviv 3^rd Quarter Plan, making possible the construction of 8,000 new residential units. The road to the plan’s final approval, a plan prepared in accordance with section 23 of TAMA 38, was long and filled with obstacles.

Givatayim intends to transform the city’s east with a series of “Pinui-Binui” projects to be built along Ben-Gurion Street on the city lines between Givatayim and Ramat Gan. In order to advance the plan, the Tel Aviv District Committee for Planning and Construction approved Givatayim’s request to prohibit the issuance of permits for TAMA 38 in the same area for a period of two years.

The National Committed decided, for the first time, to submit an urban renewal plan for the residential neighborhood of Kiryat Moshe in Rehovot.

The Tel Aviv District Appeals Committee recently set aside a building permit granted by the city of Tel Aviv to the owner of office space in a building designated for demolition under TAMA 38 who sought to convert the space to residential use.

The Appeals Committee for Planning and Building, Compensations and Betterment Tax in the District of Jerusalem held that family members who are not one economic unit are not a single family unit for the purposes of exemption from betterment tax in the expansion of an apartment of no more than 140 square meters.

The Knesset passed a new amendment (Amendment 9) to the Sales Law (Apartments), whereby developers who build apartments for sale are permitted not to deposit sureties for the VAT component of the transaction, thus decreasing the sum deposited by them.

The Tel Aviv District Court, presiding as an Administrative Court, rejected a petition filed against the District Appeals Committee for Planning and Construction and held that a structure that has not received a building permit cannot execute a TAMA 38 project. Per the court, the desire to reinforce buildings for risk of earthquakes is not intended to cure construction non-compliance and is not designed to “launder” buildings constructed without a permit

On July 24, 2017, the Sale Law Commissioner in the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing published two clarifications concerning the Sale Law and urban renewal projects.

The Ministry of Economy and Industry and the Authority for Investments and Development of the Industry and Economy are presenting a series of steps to bring the Encouragement of Capital Investments Law in line with the Israeli market of 2019.

The Supreme Court recently ruled on the issue of whether sending a text message in the course of customer service constitutes a violation of the Spam Law.