Client updates

President Biden’s new executive order increases the restrictions on doing business with Russia.

At the end of March 2022, the Israeli Ministry of Justice published a draft amendment to the Prohibition on Money Laundering Law.

The proposed amendment seeks to grant supervisory authority to the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority (IMPA), comparable to that of the Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority (CMISA), over financial service providers for aspects of the prohibition on money laundering and terror financing.

According to a new ISA legal position, convening a general meeting of shareholders to vote on a public company’s appointment of an independent auditor requires expanded disclosure.

The Israel Securities Authority guides provides basic guidelines to corporations going public and answers critical initial questions.

Elon Musk declared he would build a Tesla manufacturing factory in Germany in as early as 2019. The factory only obtained a license to operate now. The German regulator, environmental protection organizations, and Russian President Vladimir Putin all played a part.

Israeli companies in the “risk zone” must ascertain if they are subject to sanctions and adopt a significant sanctions compliance plan.

An amendment to the Employment of Women Law, which went into effect on March 14, dictates that employers may not refuse to hire women or single parents simply because they do not agree to work night shifts due to family considerations. 

A new amendment to the Male and Female Workers (Equal Pay) Law aims to promote equal employment terms in Israel.

Until now, only foreign funds from a limited number of foreign exchanges have been able to register for trading in Israel. A Ministry of Finance amendment to the relevant regulations seeks to change this.

The economic sanctions the United States has imposed on Russia have possible implications for the Israeli business community.

From “low” to “moderate” risk of money laundering: the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority’s classification change and its impact on Israel.

The Bat Yam Magistrate’s Court recently deliberated on the question of whether a product description is protected by copyright. The court ruled that a marketing text constitutes a copyrighted work, even if it includes a technical description of a product.

After a lawsuit filed by liquidators of a company that collapsed against the company’s former officers, directors, and independent auditors was dismissed in limine, a new Israeli Supreme Court ruling overturned that decision and allowed the liquidators to move forward with the lawsuit, alleging that lack of oversight was what led to the company’s collapse. The significance of this new ruling is that the “business judgment rule” will no longer be interpreted as providing automatic protection to executives, and they may now be compelled to participate in lengthy legal proceedings to prove their entitlement to legal protection.

A boutique hotel in Jaffa was convicted of spilling sewage into the sea without a permit. The court fined the company and two of its employees.

The Israeli Privacy Protection Authority has published recommendations that organizations and companies in all sectors of the economy should appoint data protection officers, along with an instruction kit in this regard. The document was published at the end of January 2022 as part of Privacy Protection Week.

The draft bill is an important step toward achieving the objectives set by the Privacy Protection Authority and the government to increase privacy protection.

Omicron is taking control of the labor market in Israel. Many employees are stuck at home in quarantine (or are ill). At the same time, there is still plenty of work. As a result, and in order to enable the Israeli economy to contend with the drastic drop in the number of available employees in the labor market, the government issued a new special permit on January 16, 2022, extending permitted overtime hours

A few days ago, the Israeli Competition Authority published for public comments draft public statement 1/22, presenting its position on vertical price maintenance arrangements. The final public statement 1/22 will replace the Competition Authority’s previous statement 2/17 published in 2018.

In an expanded panel of nine justices, Israeli Supreme Court prescribed a set of rules concerning procedures and judicial discretion on the granting of search warrants of computers and cellular devices as part of an investigation. 

The global stock index provider Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) recently announced it is seeking market feedback on Israel’s possible inclusion in its European indices. MSCI, considered one of the largest stock index providers in the world, plans to announce a decision by the end of February 2022.